Medical Meals

Phil: Talking about another smart idea, this study out of the Tufts University, Freedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy has calculated that if all eligible patients received access to medically tailored meals in just one year, they would have 1,594,000 hospitalizations. It could be avoided. And that translates to $13.6 billion saved. 

Sally: Mm-hmm. Yes, there are a lot of these companies out there that are offering medically tailored meal meals that are delivered to your home. It's usually like 10 to 15 meals per week on these plans. But what that means is, you know, when it's medically tailored, that is for people with chronic illnesses, people that are really sick, that's about 5% of the population, but that 5% is responsible for 50% of our healthcare costs. So those illnesses are costing us a lot of money with programs like these that people can get on free of charge they can be provided food that will keep 'em out of the hospital and keep those costs down. And I just don't see why we wouldn't take advantage of that. 

Phil: Exactly. And it just reinforces the whole concept of food as medicine. And if in fact we eat better, we live better, we have less, you know, less chronic disease, it just again reinforces that situation.