Vegetables Vs. Prescriptions?
New York has launched a program sponsored by the nonprofit “Wholesome Wave” to provide quality food for low-income communities in support of better healthcare. “It’s really an awesome program that’s made it more affordable for me to get fruits and vegetables,” Ms. Brown said. “I told my daughter it’s better to be told you’re overweight and here’s the solution than to just be told you’re overweight and sent home.”
Instead of drugs or admonishments to lose weight, which typically fall on deaf ears, doctors provide families in the FVRx program with a “prescription” to eat fruits and vegetables. The families also are given nutritional education, recipes and, most important of all, so-
called Health Bucks that are redeemable for produce at a local farmers’ market — at twice the amount that the families could purchase with food stamps alone. (Ms. Brown receives $325 in food stamps each month to feed her family of five.) There is no single solution to the nation’s epidemic of obesity and the costly diseases that result from it But this and similar programs at community health centers in 30 states strongly suggest that providing access to fresh fruits and vegetables, with the means to purchase them and the motivation to do so, can make a meaningful dent in the problem.
Think of how many conditions and diseases can be prevented and reversed through good nutrition!
Read more here : Prescribing Vegetables, Not Pills – NYTimes.com
