Food is Medicine

What does "Food is Medicine" mean?

Food is Medicine (FIM) refers to programs that provide food and nutrition as a part of health care to treat or prevent disease and advance health equity. This work includes prescribing meals, groceries, meal kits or fresh fruits and vegetables to support specific health conditions, well-being and social needs. FIM programs offer access to foods and meals from different cultures as well as education for diets to treat specific health conditions. 

MaineHealth has included in FIM efforts in many parts of the patient and provider experience. 

• For patients, these efforts include:
  • Food and nutrition insecurity screening
  • Research to help diet-related chronic diseases and food insecurity
  • Health behavior and lifestyle treatment options for diet-related disease
• For providers, these efforts include:
  • New referral pathways in the electronic health record
  • Clinical education
  • Policy efforts to support reimbursement and scaling

When possible, MaineHealth FIM initiatives connect patients to federal nutrition programs and healthy food policies and programs.