A well-managed, healthy diet is arguably the best medicine a person can give to themselves. The only problem is eating healthy isn’t as easy as popping a pill. For some, healthy foods simply aren’t available. And if they are, they aren’t affordable. That’s why a number of hospitals and physicians are taking actions to break down these barriers in order to improve their patients’ health. In cities where fresh produce is harder to access, hospitals have worked with local grocers to provide discounts on fruits and vegetables when patients provide a “prescription” written by their doctor; the Cleveland Clinic sponsors farmers’ markets where local growers accept food assistance vouchers from federal programs like WIC as well as state-led initiatives. And some doctors at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco hand out recipes instead of (or along with) prescriptions for their patients. Ask any doctor how to avoid or mitigate the effects of the leading killers of Americans and you’ll likely hear that eating healthier plays a big role. But while knowing intuitively that food can influence health is one thing, having the science and the confidence to back it up is another. And it’s only relatively recently that doctors have started to bridge this gap. Have a look here to see how recipes, not pills, are being prescribed to patients more and more in America.
Doctors are starting to prescribe recipes, not pills, to heal their patients
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