When Rosa Martinez, a 58-year-old from Los Angeles, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, she struggled to afford the healthy foods her doctor recommended. Like many Americans on Medicaid — health insurance for people with low incomes — she often had to choose between paying rent and buying fresh vegetables.
But what if healthy groceries could be delivered right to her door, part of her medical care?
That question led to a groundbreaking study published in the journal Circulation. Researchers at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Tufts University, and The George Institute for Global Health wanted to know whether giving people with diabetes medically tailored groceries could actually improve their health.
They recruited 460 Medicaid-insured adults with type 2 diabetes who had dangerously high blood sugar levels. The participants were patients at 12 medical offices across Southern California. Between November 2021 and July 2022, half of them were randomly assigned to receive usual care, while the other half started getting home deliveries of healthy foods each week.
The grocery group received about $135 to $175 worth of food per month, scaled to fit their household size. They also got culturally tailored recipes — meaning foods from their own food traditions — and access to phone-based nutrition counseling. For six months, researchers tracked their progress.
The results were striking. Participants who received the medically tailored groceries lowered their blood sugar significantly more than those receiving standard care. They saw an additional 0.40-point reduction in their HbA1c levels — a test that measures average blood sugar over several months. That's the kind of improvement doctors usually achieve only with additional medication.
But the benefits went beyond just blood sugar. Among grocery recipients, food security jumped by 215 percent and nutrition security by 365 percent. In other words, they were less likely to run out of food and more likely to have enough fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
Surprisingly, the amount of groceries mattered less than expected. People who received the higher-value box ($175) did no better than those who received the lower-value box ($135).
"This trial shows that food-based support can help patients with low incomes lower their blood sugar levels above and beyond the health care they receive," said Dr. Claudia Nau, the study's lead author and a researcher at Kaiser Permanente Southern California.
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, said the findings prove something many have long suspected: healthy food can be as powerful as medicine. He hopes this research convinces Medicaid programs across the country to start covering medically tailored groceries — treating nutrition not as a lifestyle choice, but as a fundamental part of healthcare.
The study adds to a growing movement called Food is Medicine, which aims to integrate healthy eating into clinical treatment. For the 37 million Americans living with diabetes, this research offers a simple but powerful message: sometimes the best medicine comes from the grocery store, not the pharmacy.