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"Food Is Medicine" (FIM) represents a spectrum of food-based interventions integrated into health care for patients with specific health conditions and often social needs. Programs include medically tailored meals, groceries, and produce prescriptions, with varying levels of nutrition and culinary education. Supportive advances include expanded care pathways and payment models, e-screening for food and nutrition security, and curricular and accreditation requirements for medical nutrition education. Evidence supports positive effects of FIM on food insecurity, diet quality, glucose control, hypertension, body weight, disease self-management, self-perceived physical and mental health, and cost-effectiveness or cost savings. However, most studies to date are quasiexperimental or pre/post interventions; larger randomized trials are ongoing. New national and local programs and policies are rapidly accelerating FIM within health care. Remaining research gaps require rigorous, iterative evaluation. Successful incorporation of FIM into health care will require multiparty partnerships to assess, optimize, and scale these promising treatments to advance health and health equity. [Display omitted] • "Food is Medicine" interventions integrate food-based treatments into health care systems. • Preliminary evidence suggests significant positive impacts of these programs. • Clinicians, health systems, and payers should support current and future directions of this strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., and its public health and economic burdens are rising. There is substantial evidence that dietary factors significantly reduce ASCVD-related morbidity and mortality, and that Americans, including those with established ASCVD, adhere poorly to cardio-protective diet patterns. Despite this, there continues to be a large gap in nutrition education during medical school and post-graduate training, leaving physicians poorly prepared to counsel patients on diet, nutrition, and related behavior change. The result is a massive missed opportunity to improve cardiovascular disease prevention at the health system level. However, recent calls for change by stakeholder groups, and a surprising new experiential learning model, suggest this may be changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing scientific evidence of the benefits of heart-healthy dietary patterns and of the massive public health and economic burdens attributed to obesity and poor diet quality have triggered national calls to increase diet counseling in outpatients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or risk factors. However, despite evidence that physicians are willing to undertake this task and are viewed as credible sources of diet information, they engage patients in diet counseling at less than desirable rates and cite insufficient knowledge and training as barriers. These data align with evidence of large and persistent gaps in medical nutrition education and training in the United States. Now, major reforms in undergraduate and graduate medical education designed to incorporate advances in the science of learning and to better prepare physicians for 21st century healthcare delivery are providing a new impetus and novel ways to expand medical nutrition education and training. This science advisory reviews gaps in undergraduate and graduate medical education in nutrition in the United States, summarizes reforms that support and facilitate more robust nutrition education and training, and outlines new opportunities for accomplishing this goal via multidimensional curricula, pedagogies, technologies, and competency-based assessments. Real-world examples of efforts to improve undergraduate and graduate medical education in nutrition by integrating formal learning with practical, experiential, inquiry-driven, interprofessional, and population health management activities are provided. The authors conclude that enhancing physician education and training in nutrition, as well as increasing collaborative nutrition care delivery by 21st century health systems, will reduce the health and economic burdens from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease to a degree not previously realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]