What is "Food is Medicine?"
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 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
- Evidence-based chronic disease nutrition programming at MaineHealth Franklin Hospital, MaineHealth Stephens Hospital and MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital
- Produce prescription programs for patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes enrolled in Living Well with Diabetes and for patients with heart failure enrolled in Cardiac Rehabilitation
- 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.
“Food is Medicine” means using healthy food as part of health care to help prevent or treat diseases. These programs may give people meals, groceries, or produce designed for their medical needs. Health care providers help pay for this so people can get the food that supports their health.
MaineHealth’s evidence-based chronic disease nutrition programs are self-management programs that help patients set and meet their health goals. These programs offer support, education and hands-on skill-building on a variety of topics, including:
- Healthy cooking & eating
- Increasing access to healthy food
- Providing ongoing group support
The goal is to help patients self-manage their chronic conditions through healthy lifestyle changes. We aim to improve food security, in addition to helping people feel better and have the energy to live a healthy lifestyle.
MaineHealth is a member of national Food is Medicine research and advocacy groups including: The New England Regional Collaborative for Food is Medicine and the National Produce Prescription Collaborative.
Contact Us
For more information please contact us at foodismedicine@mainehealth.org.
