When Karen, a Massachusetts resident with diabetes, started receiving home-delivered meals tailored to her health needs, something remarkable happened: she ended up in the hospital 31 percent less often than before. That number comes from a new study that researchers say proves what many have long believed — food really can be medicine.
The study, published by researchers at Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts, looked at Massachusetts residents on Medicaid — the government health insurance program for people with low incomes — who received medically tailored meals. These aren't just any meal deliveries. Registered dietitian nutritionists customize each meal for people dealing with conditions like diabetes, heart disease, or chronic kidney disease. The meals are prepared and brought right to people's doors.
The results were striking. Besides the 31 percent drop in hospitalizations, participants also had 20 percent fewer visits to the emergency room. Even more impressive: each person's health care costs went down by an average of $3,433 while they were in the program. That savings almost completely covered what the program cost taxpayers.
"It's rare to find anything in medicine that both improves health and saves money," said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist who directs Tufts University's Food is Medicine Institute. "It should be a no-brainer to extend similar programs to patients in other states."
Massachusetts became the first state to broadly offer these meals through Medicaid, which is why researchers focused their study there. Today, nine other states — California, Delaware, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington — have launched similar programs, with about a dozen states now participating overall.
Poor diet is one of the leading causes of illness and emergency room visits in the United States. Health experts say programs like this tackle that problem head-on by giving people the right food for their specific health conditions, free of charge.
Researchers are hopeful this study will inspire more states and insurance programs to adopt medically tailored meals. The findings could especially inform Medicare, the federal health insurance for people 65 and older, as well as employer-based insurance plans. The movement to treat food as medicine has gained momentum in recent years, with support spanning different political viewpoints.
For now, the Massachusetts study stands as powerful evidence that sometimes the best medicine comes on a plate.