Minnesota Hospitals try out Prescriptions for Fruits and Vegetables

Share On Social!

Some doctors’ offices and health clinics across the country have tried a new approach to get at-risk kids, many of which are Latino, to eat healthier foods: providing them with “prescriptions” with which they can buy fruits and vegetables at the grocery store. 

Two HealthPartners clinics in Minnesota are piloting a new program to see if fresh produce prescriptions would indeed encourage healthier eating in overweight and obese young patients.

Participating doctors will issue the prescriptions to at-risk children ages 5 to 12 and encourage them to try some new foods. Area supermarkets accept the prescriptions and track the varieties of produce purchased. The prescriptions are actually just vouchers funded by HealthPartners, rather than formal scripts, but the idea is to make them look official so they send the message to children that good eating is good health care.

“It could save us a huge amount of money down the road in our cholesterol-lowering drugs, in our heart-saving procedures,” said Dr. Elsa Keeler, a pediatrician at the White Bear Lake clinic.

After the two participating health clinics hand-out all the prescriptions, HealthPartners will evaluate the study to see if the program resulted in healthy behavior changes.

The prescription trial is part of Bear Power, a collaboration of HealthPartners, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, and schools and civic groups in White Bear Lake to improve community health.

Read more in the news.