A Healthier You

Doctors May Soon Be Prescribing Veggies Instead Of Drugs

06/07/2019

(Tech Times) – Doctors might soon begin giving out a prescription for fruits and vegetables to lower a patient’s risk of chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

In a new study, public health experts found that healthy food prescription, which will be covered by health insurance, would improve overall health and could even be more cost-effective in the long run.

The researchers modeled the health and economic benefits of healthy food prescriptions that will be covered by Medicare and Medicaid. They used a computer simulation that generated sample representatives of the Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and utilized data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, published sources, and meta-analyses.

Two scenarios were modeled: Medicare/Medicaid covered 30 percent of fruit and vegetable purchases and Medicare/Medicaid covered 30 percent of fruit, vegetable, whole grain, nut/seed, seafood, and plant-based oil purchases.

hey found that the fruit and vegetable incentive prevented 1.93 million cases of cardiovascular disease among beneficiaries. Meanwhile, among the group with a broader healthy food incentive, 3.28 million cardiovascular disease cases were prevented.

Insurance coverage of whole grains and nuts/seeds also prevented 120,000 instances of diabetes.

Read the full story at techtimes.com