According to the authors, studies have shown that 65-70% of food in grocery stores is unhealthy based on nutritional criteria. Our food products contain too much salt, fat and sugar. (Photo: Metro Creative Services)
Five years ago, before “plant-based” became trendy, I identified 12 factors I believed were supporting the “food as medicine” megatrend.
One of the reasons plant-based agriculture has grown is due to concerns about sustainability and the need to move from animal-based agriculture to plant-based agriculture. Food as medicine is much larger than the plant-based market, mainly because the economic impact is felt more personally.
Research has shown that food helps prevent, suppress and reverse disease. Food is the primary and largest social determinant of health. The public and private sectors have no choice but to explore the benefits of food as medicine to reduce healthcare costs. Food as medicine may sound “heretical” to some, but no one doubts the important role that nutrition plays in healthcare. For example, we use nutrition as therapy, from infant formula to intravenous feeding.
In the world of food as medicine, food can be used not only as therapeutic but also lifestyle and preventive medicine. There are treatments that use food “as is, as medicine, or with medicine”. Diet can complement a therapeutic intervention, i.e. food and medicine. In some cases, food is a legitimate alternative to the conventional standard of care, i.e. food or medicine. In other cases, food is medicine. Examples are targeted nutrient deficiency (TND) technology companies such as filtricin, a food in clinical research for cancer treatment. These companies produce foods that nourish and starve certain types of cancer.
For several years, I have attended the “Food as Medicine” conferences at the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University, which is considered the national leader in this field. For the past 18 months, I have attended food conferences to learn about the emerging food-as-medicine trend, including the Specialty Food Show in New York, the Natural Products Show East and West, the IFT First Show in Chicago, the Nutrition Show in Boston, the “Food as Medicine” conference at Tufts University in Boston, and two conferences hosted by Grey Green in Chicago and Washington DC. I have also attended the White House National Nutrition Security and Healthcare Summit in Washington DC, and a regional conference, “Come to the Table,” in Worcester. I have also attended a lecture series on the microbiome at MIT.
Sunday Celebrations commissioned the study on the food as medicine market in the areas of various types of software solutions, from CPG/medical groceries, medical/nutritional meal kits/delivery, prescription production, medical meals, microbiome/biotherapeutics, personalized/precision nutrition to helping you find healthy foods in the grocery store, functional foods, and dietary supplements.
My conclusion is that food as medicine will be bigger and broader than anyone could have imagined, because it represents the convergence of several major trends.
First, because everyone eats food, and our current food system is a leading cause of chronic disease. Patagonia, a clothing manufacturer, entered the food market because they realized that everyone eats food, and they could have a bigger impact on the planet through food than through clothing. Second, the connection between rising healthcare costs and poor nutritional habits. This market opportunity is attracting investment capital and innovation to provide solutions. Third, our current eating habits are reducing our quality and longevity of life. Fourth, the growing acceptance of lifestyle, holistic, integrative, and other health practices is recognizing the importance of nutrition.
GreyGreen's Washington DC Food is Medicine policy summit revealed just how committed the federal government is to treating food as medicine. “Food is Medicine” is just one part of the Department of Health and Human Services' efforts to advance the commitments made in the White House's National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to reduce the prevalence of chronic disease in the United States. This “whole of government” approach includes many agencies, including USDA, HHS, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NASA, Medicaid, and Medicare. The military as well as the Veterans Administration are involved in Treating Food as Medicine because the federal government is responsible for feeding and paying for medical care for military personnel. USDA is looking at ways to reform WIC and SNAP to support the Treating Food as Medicine philosophy and create more therapeutic food pantries.
In life sciences, personalized and precision nutrition, combining genetics, biomarkers, the microbiome and digital therapeutics, will be a major advancement in the food as a medicine approach. This is the next generation of health and wellness coaching, weight management and nutrition counseling.
In terms of personal nutrition, there will be more foods designed specifically for women's nutritional needs and for specific life stages.
No one wants to cut benefits, but the ever-rising share of the national budget spent on health care is unsustainable. The private sector is also struggling with rising health care costs and is looking for ways to reduce costs without cutting benefits. The private sector is exploring evidence-based food and drug interventions as a way to treat and ideally prevent or reverse chronic disease.
Dietary adherence and nutritional improvement is one of the key pillars of health coaching and digital therapeutics. The problem is that we have disconnected nutrition from food, and most food has become junk food from a nutritional perspective.
Even if grocery stores sell only natural and organic foods, studies have found that 65-70% of the food in grocery stores is unhealthy by nutritional standards. Food has too much salt, fat and sugar. We now eat more food outside the home than we do at home, but that food is just as bad, if not worse.
In essence, the American food system has become a giant chronic disease supply system, and that is showing up in the health of Americans.
A 2018 study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that only 12% of American adults are metabolically healthy. As a population, we have overweight, diabetes or prediabetes, heart disease, and diet-related cancers. This doesn’t include all the other health issues that are directly or indirectly linked to diet.
But it doesn't have to be this way. With the discovery of new ingredients, the creation of novel all-natural ingredients, the ability of AI to combine ingredients to give us the flavor profiles we want, and machine learning to develop the most desirable flavors, most of the unhealthy items sold in grocery stores can be made into healthy, delicious versions.
There are many different approaches to reducing chronic disease and its associated medical costs. Weight management drugs, estimated at $100 billion to $200 billion, are one approach. Another solution is to simply eat healthier foods.
Ed Gaskin is executive director of Greater Grove Hall Main Street and founder of Sunday Celebrations.
