After 20 years of prescribing pills to help patients manage their heart health, John Hopkins-trained cardiologist Dr. Elizabeth Klodas found many of her patients felt worse from the drugs – even if their cholesterol and other numbers were better. Frustrated and ready for a new approach, she launched Step One Foods as a clinically proven ‘food as medicine’ alternative to the ‘pill for every ill’ culture.

In this session, she shares how she developed and tested the efficacy of her snack bars, pancake mix, granola-like sprinkles and oatmeal packets, as well as how she is navigating FDA regulations that limit health claims on food and insurers’ reticence to cover treatments that are difficult to quantify.

Chronic diet-related diseases are among the leading causes of death in the US, especially among low-income communities without equitable access to healthy nutrition, and yet nutrition is often overlooked or left out of the health care system. Public health advocates and stakeholders across the food system, including retailers, delivery services and manufacturers, are working together to help more people access the nutritious food they need to live healthier.

In this session, we explore the extent and impact of poor nutrition on health, accessibility issues, initiatives to measure and build evidence for a large-scale ‘food as medicine’ movement in the US and policy efforts to support healthy food as a covered benefit by insurers. We also look at barriers to equity and efforts to address them.