bacon bits—may be viewed as a healthy choice by consumers. Increasingly, though, consumers are connecting diet to health and realizing that food affects their
energy, mood, performance, and productivity. Gen Z, in particular, has embraced FAM. Nearly 80% of those born between 1997 and 2012 go meatless at least one day a week, and 65% want a more
Policy Makers Put Food as Medicine on Their Strategy Menus Interest by policy makers in food as medicine (FAM) has risen as evidence has grown to validate the concept’s effectiveness in healthcare treatments and recovery. In May 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Resolution 784, which recognized “the mounting personal and financial burden of diet-related disease” in the U.S. and called on medical schools and training programs to “provide meaningful physician and health professional education on nutrition and diet.” Currently, the average medical student receives an average of just 19 hours total of nutritional training. The White House has acknowledged the power and potential of FAM by including it in the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, which it rolled out alongside its associated conference September 28. In his remarks outlining goals for a healthier America by 2030, President Biden urged stakeholders such as hospitals, food manufacturers, insurance companies, and people with lived experience with malnutrition and food scarcity to work with government to “lower the toll that diet-related diseases take on far too many
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Americans. This call is within our reach.” He lamented that heart disease—one of many dietrelated chronic conditions—remains the leading cause of death in America and that in 19 states more than 35% of adults are obese. In response, the new strategy includes widescale actions such as expanding access to nutrition and obesity counseling so that millions of seniors and others on Medicaid and Medicare “can get the guidance they need to stay healthy,” he said. “We also know that too often healthier foods cost more,” so federal agencies are responding with changes and incentives such as a revised benefit formula for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to increase funds to low-income families for purchasing fruits and vegetables. FAM is included in two of the three principles of Biden’s strategy, first by helping more Americans “access the food that will keep their families nourished and healthy” via actions such as reducing food deserts, increasing local farm-to-schools food contracts, and improving the taste and nutritional value of school meals and food on federal properties. The second principle gives “folks the options and information they need to make healthy dietary choices” through clearer food package labeling tied to federal dietary guidelines, as well as culturally sensitive messaging and more research into connections between diet and health. His third principle promotes physical activity. “Science changes things,” said Biden in his call for an inclusive, collaborative “whole-of-government approach.” “People are realizing not only whether or not they’re overweight, obese, or ‘not healthy,’ but that certain diseases are affected by what they eat.… The more we can spread that word and educate people on what’s at stake, the more we’re going to see change.”