Opportunities and Challenges for Promoting Sustainable Diets within "Food is Medicine" Programs in the United States: A Qualitative Research Study.
5 affiliations
- 1World Food Policy Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States.
- 2Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA, United States.
- 3Center for Nutrition & Health Impact, Omaha, NE, United States.
- 4Virginia Family Nutrition Program, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, United States.
- 5School of Communication, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, United States.
Abstract
Background
The United States population is experiencing concurrent, interrelated challenges of diet-related chronic diseases, food and nutrition insecurity, and climate change. Food is Medicine (FIM) has been described as a range of food-based programs that aim to prevent, manage, and treat diet-related chronic diseases in partnership with health care systems. Research is lacking in how these programs could promote plant-rich dietary patterns and other sustainability practices to support both human and planetary health.Objectives
This study explored how FIM experts in the United States define FIM and plant-rich dietary patterns and their views on the opportunities and challenges to incorporating sustainable diet practices into FIM programs.Methods
We conducted semistructured Zoom interviews with 20 national FIM experts between July and October 2024. Participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. Data were analyzed using inductive and deductive thematic analysis guided by the socioecological model.Results
Expert perspectives differed on the definition and scope of FIM but largely agreed on the components of a plant-rich dietary pattern. Participants viewed produce prescriptions and medically tailored meal and grocery programs as aligned with plant-rich dietary patterns but described challenges with the lack of standardization across programs. Experts described pilot FIM programs that have incorporated sustainability practices but lacked explicit messaging on the human and planetary health cobenefits. Supporting local or regenerative producers and reducing food waste were identified as sustainability practices that could be systematically incorporated into FIM programs. Challenges included misalignment with the political environment and policy and systems barriers that restrict enabling environments for supporting sustainable diets.Conclusions
The FIM movement offers promising opportunities to promote collaboration among food and health system actors, but challenges require coordinated actions within and across sectors. Future FIM programs could identify potential areas of human and planetary health cobenefit and incorporate sustainable diet principles into program design and evaluation.
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BibTeX
@article{stanley2026opportunities,
title = {{Opportunities and Challenges for Promoting Sustainable Diets within "Food is Medicine" Programs in the United States: A Qualitative Research Study.}},
author = {Katherine Consavage Stanley and Paige B Harrigan and Bailey Houghtaling and Elena Serrano and Adrienne Holz and Valisa E Hedrick and Vivica I Kraak},
journal = {Current developments in nutrition},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1016/j.cdnut.2026.109541},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42908590},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Opportunities and Challenges for Promoting Sustainable Diets within "Food is Medicine" Programs in the United States: A Qualitative Research Study.
AU - Katherine Consavage Stanley
AU - Paige B Harrigan
AU - Bailey Houghtaling
AU - Elena Serrano
AU - Adrienne Holz
AU - Valisa E Hedrick
AU - Vivica I Kraak
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/23
JO - Current developments in nutrition
DO - 10.1016/j.cdnut.2026.109541
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42908590
AB - Background The United States population is experiencing concurrent, interrelated challenges of diet-related chronic diseases, food and nutrition insecurity, and climate change. Food is Medicine (FIM) has been described as a range of food-based programs that aim to prevent, manage, and treat diet-related chronic diseases in partnership with health care systems. Research is lacking in how these programs could promote plant-rich dietary patterns and other sustainability practices to support both human and planetary health.Objectives This study explored how FIM experts in the United States define FIM and plant-rich dietary patterns and their views on the opportunities and challenges to incorporating sustainable diet practices into FIM programs.Methods We conducted semistructured Zoom interviews with 20 national FIM experts between July and October 2024. Participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. Data were analyzed using inductive and deductive thematic analysis guided by the socioecological model.Results Expert perspectives differed on the definition and scope of FIM but largely agreed on the components of a plant-rich dietary pattern. Participants viewed produce prescriptions and medically tailored meal and grocery programs as aligned with plant-rich dietary patterns but described challenges with the lack of standardization across programs. Experts described pilot FIM programs that have incorporated sustainability practices but lacked explicit messaging on the human and planetary health cobenefits. Supporting local or regenerative producers and reducing food waste were identified as sustainability practices that could be systematically incorporated into FIM programs. Challenges included misalignment with the political environment and policy and systems barriers that restrict enabling environments for supporting sustainable diets.Conclusions The FIM movement offers promising opportunities to promote collaboration among food and health system actors, but challenges require coordinated actions within and across sectors. Future FIM programs could identify potential areas of human and planetary health cobenefit and incorporate sustainable diet principles into program design and evaluation.
SN - 2475-2991
ER -