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Each week, Health Affairs' Rob Lott brings you in-depth conversations with leading researchers and influencers shaping the big ideas in health policy and the health care industry.
A Health Podyssey goes beyond the pages of the health policy journal Health Affairs to tell stories behind the research and share policy implications. Learn how academics and economists frame their research questions and journey to the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Health policy nerds rejoice! This podcast is for you.
Hello, and welcome to the third episode of Health Affairs special four part podcast miniseries on food, nutrition, and health. I'm Ellen Beyer.
Jessica Bylander:And I'm Jessica Bylander.
Ellen Bayer:Before I get into today's episode, I just wanna give a little background. We're releasing four episodes of this miniseries on consecutive Wednesdays leading up to and continuing with the publication of our April 2025 theme issue on food, nutrition, and health. In today's episode, which is the third in the series, we're providing an insider's guide to the theme issue. And in the next and last episode, Jess and I interview the author of the narrative matters essay that was published with the issue. You can find all of these episodes on our landing page for the theme issue, and we'll put a link to that in the show notes.
Jessica Bylander:We'd also just like to thank the funders who made this issue possible, including the Episcopal Health Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, the Kresge Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. We'd also like to thank our theme issue advisers, Darius Mosafarian of Tufts University and Angela Odems Young of Cornell University who have been great partners in this project.
Ellen Bayer:As we get into the content of the theme issue, I wanna first point out two things that are new with this issue. So one is the debut of a new series in the journal, which we're calling Community Voices. So Jess, you're involved in planning community voices. Can you talk about that? What are some of the goals and what kinds of content does it include?
Jessica Bylander:Yeah. So the community voices pieces in this issue are part of a broader new initiative we have at the journal to highlight historically underrepresented voices in health affairs and to feature pieces that are about communities written by members of the community rather than sort of filtered through the lens of researchers or academia. We did some outreach and and got some great pieces for this current issue, and you'll see this sort of initiative continue into the future. But one of the Community Voices papers in the issue is by Rochelle Bellen and coauthors, and it's about honoring and integrating local culture in food and its medicine programs. This one specifically focuses on some community based organizations in North Carolina and several of the authors of the paper work at those community based organizations that are highlighted in the paper.
Jessica Bylander:So they describe how these organizations integrate local traditions such as black cultural heritage and Southern Appalachian farming and foster a sense of belonging and trust with community members while addressing systemic inequities. And they argue that as this food is medicine movement expands, you know, and risks becoming sort of more corporatized or things like that, it's essential to ensure that communities and CBOs remain central to the movement so that these, programs continue to meet their unique needs. And, Ellen, you were the editor for another one of the Community Voices papers. Can you tell us about that?
Ellen Bayer:Sure. So the other Community Voices paper is by Jesse Lipman and several coauthors from Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services, which is a federally qualified health center in Honolulu, Hawaii. And the paper tells the story of how the health center over time has incorporated indigenous and cultural knowledge and practices into its efforts and programs to address food insecurity and the high rates of diet related illness in the community. And these efforts include, among other things, cultivating and harvesting a community garden, holding cultural food events with traditional healers and practitioners, operating a cafe that serves traditional Hawaiian foods, and running a food hub that gathers organic produce and cultural foods from local producers and distributes them to the community through the health centers programs and retail stores.
Jessica Bylander:That's great. And also new in the issue is the release of the first national survey on food as medicine. Is that right?
Ellen Bayer:That's right, Jess. So Ronit Riedberg and several of her colleagues conducted the first national survey on adults' knowledge, perceptions and experiences with food as medicine in The US. And one of the interesting findings is that fewer than half of the respondents said that their primary care doctor gave them clear advice about food and nutrition. And most respondents said they were interested in participating in food as medicine interventions, and most people felt that these programs should be covered by health insurance. And so a couple of the papers in the issue are notable for having interactive graphics with them.
Ellen Bayer:Jess, what what can you tell us about those?
Jessica Bylander:Yeah. So we have a great team at health affairs that works on these and we encourage listeners to check out our website for this and other great contents from beyond the pages of the journal as we say. So we talked about the community voices piece on community based orgs in North Carolina. And so if you visit our website, you can check out an interactive map to learn more about each of these six organizations and see photos of them in action. So an interactive map for that one.
Jessica Bylander:And then we have another really interesting paper in the journal about how the food supply of 12 countries across the globe compares to planetary health benchmarks. And so it's like a heat map that you can visit and see how different countries, including The US are doing in terms of meeting the benchmark for the supply of fruit, vegetables, grains, dairy, and so on. And despite our status in The US as a high income country, there are some food groups where our food supply does not meet these benchmark standards. So it's interesting to sort of compare and contrast how high middle, low income countries sort of shake out in in terms of how well our food supply is actually poised to meet our dietary needs.
Ellen Bayer:Those interactive drafts really are are really cool. I encourage our listeners to check them out. And so, Jess, you wrote a paper for the issue as part of our people and places series. What can you tell us about that?
Jessica Bylander:Yeah. So I had the opportunity to interview some folks from the Fed Collective, which is a group of black, indigenous, and people of color led organizations in the food as medicine space that came together to support BIPOC organizations working in this space. So the goals of the group are sort of collective action through policy advocacy, research, and other forms of support. And they point out that BIPOC led organizations are really important and growing sort of force in this space and there's a lot to be learned from them and they also need support. They need cross learning and resources sharing to be able to sort of compete and receive grants and other support to continue doing their really important work.
Jessica Bylander:The principle at the core of feds, the FED stands for fidelity, equity, and dignity. So that's sort of the core values that their programs are aligned with and that they're trying to help other food as medicine programs align with. And so, we've talked a lot about community on this episode and the Fed collective and the framework that it has out there that others can sort of adopt or try to follow are just another way for health systems to see communities as valuable assets and partners in the food as medicine space without harming the communities that they partner with. So in conjunction with the theme issue, we're excited to be hosting a virtual lunch and learn event as well. Ellen, you helped plan that event and we'll be kicking it off.
Jessica Bylander:Could you fill our listeners in on what that will involve?
Ellen Bayer:Sure. So, yeah, as you said, in conjunction with the theme issue, we're we're very much looking forward to our virtual lunch and learn event with a special guest, Marion Nestle, who, as many of our listeners know, is a nationally recognized food and nutrition expert and an award winning author. The event will be a conversation about food, nutrition, and health issues between Marion and one of our theme issue advisors, Angela Odoms Young. So the event is free and open to everyone. It's being held on Tuesday, April 29 at 1PM eastern time, and we'll put a link to the registration in the show notes.
Jessica Bylander:Great. And also free and open to everyone is the virtual briefing on the theme issue, which was just held on Tuesday, April 8. So that's an opportunity for folks to hear from many of the authors of the issue on panels covering food as medicine, equity, community voices, government programs. So all these really important themes emerging from the issue. So, we'll, as we mentioned, have a link to the land Theme Issue landing page in the show notes and folks can view the recording on that page once it becomes available.
Jessica Bylander:So with that, I think, this is just a really exciting issue and everything beyond the journal to to look out for. And I personally have really enjoyed working on it with you, Ellen, and and learning from it. So hope folks have a chance to check it out and check out all the other content and events surrounding this issue. Thanks.
Ellen Bayer:Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks, Jess.
Jessica Bylander:Well, thanks so much for listening. And if you wanna keep in touch with us, sign up for our free newsletters, and we'll put a link in the show notes.