Molly Van Lieu of the International Fresh Produce Association is talking about how produce prescriptions may transform healthcare in the U.S. Oklahoma Farm Report’s Stevie White is featuring comments from her panel discussion at the most recent National Association of Farm Broadcasters Convention. Click here to read and listen to a conversation Van Lieu had with our own Maci Carter.
“We define ‘Food is Medicine’ as a produce prescription which is a standard practice of clinical care,” Van Lieu explained. “A produce benefit that is prescribed by a health care provider and is paid for by your health insurance company.”
Increased consumption of fruits and vegetables has long been known to result in better pharmaceutical outcomes, but for some, affordability is a major issue.
“When a health care provider tells a patient to eat more fruits and vegetables, and the patient has affordability issues, that can be a really hard conversation to have,” she said. “This provides a solution for them.”
According to Van Lieu, eight out of ten U.S. healthcare dollars are spent on preventable chronic disease which is directly linked to American diets. “We really have to have that paradigm shift of deciding who we want to invest in industries – pharmaceutical or agricultural,” Van Lieu pointed out.
When asked if fruit and vegetable producers can keep up with the increased demand produce prescriptions might cause, Van Lieu said, “If we can scale produce prescriptions, we will see a dramatic increase in produce consumption, but this isn’t going to happen overnight. I do believe that the produce industry is the most resilient and adaptable food industry. Our struggle for decades has been demand, so this has an opportunity to increase demand for sure.”
Van Lieu said that there will be no coverage distinction between organically raised or conventionally raised fruits and vegetables considering that the average American today doesn’t come close to meeting the minimal recommendations of either. Distinguishing between the two would only be a disservice to the target consumers.
While produce prescriptions are being studied in other countries, the U.S. is ahead of the curve, but not necessarily for a good reason. “The U.S. is way ahead of other countries in this work,” she said. “Mostly because we need it the most. Most other countries don’t have the underlying diet-related disease problems that we do which is the tipping point for utilizing produce prescriptions.”
The prevalence of diet-related diseases in the U.S. is a sure sign that it is time to make changes like this.
