Health Care X Food
American Heart Association Logo Health Care by Food Logo and Tagline

Health Care by FoodTM Initiative

Food is medicine is the provision of healthy food to prevent, manage, or treat specific conditions or nutrition and food insecurity in a way that is integrated within the health care sector.

The American Heart Association’s Health Care by Food initiative is building the evidence needed to show clinical and cost effectiveness so patients with acute or chronic disease or with risk factors for disease can access cost-effective food is medicine programs as a covered benefit through public and private health insurance.

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Mother and Daughter Picking out Healthy Groceries

Foundational Support

With anchor support from The Rockefeller Foundation, contributions from inaugural collaborator Kroger, and with additional support from Instacart, Kaiser Permanente and the Walmart Foundation, the Health Care by Food initiative is engaging in research, advocacy and education to promote the adoption of interventions that reduce disease and curb health care costs. The Health Care by Food initiative was first announced as the Food Is Medicine Initiative at the September 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health by the American Heart Association and The Rockefeller Foundation.

Medically Tailored Diet-Salad

Foundational Research

The initiative’s research efforts were announced in January 2024, with funds awarded to foundational research projects across the country led by experts in the food and nutrition, behavioral science, epidemiology and cardiovascular research fields. 

These research projects focus on feasibility and implementation science in pilot testing different ways of increasing enrollment and engagement in food is medicine interventions and examining ways to accomplish significant short-term changes in healthy eating behavior. Developing ways to increase engagement now, and incorporating those insights in subsequent tests of efficacy, will facilitate the testing of more potent interventions.

For more information, visit our Science page.

Contact Us: HCXF@heart.org