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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Bianca Nogrady

Food as medicine: could prescribing fruit and vegetables become part of healthcare?

fruit and veg illustration
‘We spend billions paying for medications or paying for surgeries that are essentially downstream consequences of unhealthy diets,’ says nutrition epidemiologist Prof Jason Wu. Illustration: Greedy Hen/The Guardian

Emma’s type 2 diabetes diagnosis turned her life upside down. “It is like having a baby that never grows up,” she says. “It is nagging at you as soon as you wake up.” Every single morsel of food has to be carefully chosen in case it sends her blood sugar levels spiking, which could cause her to pass out or worse.

The ideal diet for someone with Emma’s condition would include lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, wholegrains, nuts and seeds, lean meat and fish, and reduced-fat dairy. That diet has been shown to slow down or even reverse the progression of type 2 diabetes and help prevent it happening in the first place. But that has been a diet she has struggled to access.

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