Get Healthy: Prescription programs, nutrition resources making inroads against food insecurity and resulting health problems

Christine Bryant

Across hospitals and organizations, a growing movement is taking aim at food insecurity by treating access to nutritious food as essential to patient health.

This year, nearly 5% of Methodist Hospitals patients have screened positive for food insecurity, a term used to describe the lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life, says Rebecca Puffer, a clinical dietitian with Methodist.

Without reliable access to nutritious food, patients are more likely to face chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney disease, making food insecurity a serious health risk, she says.

“If an individual is already managing a chronic disease and becomes food insecure, the health outcomes are worse for those individuals,” Puffer said.

Accordi