{"id":44754,"date":"2023-01-20T18:44:26","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T18:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/comprehensive-food-nutrition-program-aims-to-combat-disparities-in-diabetes-treatments\/"},"modified":"2023-01-20T18:44:26","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T18:44:26","slug":"comprehensive-food-nutrition-program-aims-to-combat-disparities-in-diabetes-treatments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/comprehensive-food-nutrition-program-aims-to-combat-disparities-in-diabetes-treatments\/","title":{"rendered":"Comprehensive food nutrition program aims to combat disparities in diabetes treatments"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Rachel Crumpler<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Health care providers have traditionally written prescriptions for medications, for exercise, for therapy, even for relaxation for their patients. So to combat obesity and poor nutrition, why not give patients a prescription to help them eat better?<\/p>\n

Such food prescriptions<\/a> \u2014 delivered to patients in the form of vouchers that can help patients get access to more fresh fruits and vegetables \u2014 are becoming increasingly popular across the U.S.<\/p>\n

Lauren Sastre, a professor in the Department of Nutrition Science at East Carolina University, saw the promise of food prescription programs in fall 2018 when she started researching their implementation. While she considered them helpful, Sastre didn\u2019t think they went far enough in breaking down barriers to getting healthy food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For one, she said, transportation issues persist \u2014 especially in rural areas. Additionally, the amounts of fresh food offered aren\u2019t often substantial enough to meet nutrition recommendations. For example, in some cases the allotted funds would only cover the cost of a tomato and a cucumber.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sastre wanted to create a more robust produce prescription program \u2014 to operate longer, to provide more food and to offer more educational support.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have access to healthy food, you can\u2019t eat well, period,\u201d Sastre said. \u201cSo that\u2019s step one. But there needs to be more than step one. We don\u2019t have Home Ec anymore. We\u2019re not teaching people how to prepare things from scratch. The idea that people are going to take this produce home and cook it and eat it \u2014 there has to be some level of support in place for that.\u201d<\/p>\n