For generations, nutrition has sat outside the exam room. A small but growing movement is starting to see it differently.
By Amy Choate-Nielsen
October 15, 2026
For generations, nutrition has sat outside the exam room. A small but growing movement is starting to see it differently.
By Amy Choate-Nielsen
October 15, 2026
CONSIDER THIS…
In the U.S., 48 million people lack access to affordable, nutritious food.
Food-insecure adults are up to three times more likely to develop diabetes and face a much higher risk of heart disease.
Poor diet drives an estimated $50 billion a year in preventable health care costs.
On any given day, standing in front of a Utah elementary school classroom, it’s likely that one in five of the bright, hopeful faces looking back is food insecure. They are part of the 445,000 Utahns who do not know where their next meal will come from, according to the Utah Food Bank. Their families are not homeless, or technically in poverty. They likely make just enough not to qualify for government benefits to help them eat. But money is tight—so tight that their parents, like others facing food insecurity, are regularly forced to make hard choices. Should I buy food or fix the car? Should I buy food or go to the doctor?
“Food insecurity is usually silent,” said Amy Locke, MD, chief wellness officer and director of the Osher Center for Integrative Health at U of U Health. “We often don’t know who has trouble accessing food.” It could be a single mother, juggling work and childcare, whose car breaks down unexpectedly. It could be a veteran, struggling to pay rent, whose medical bills are mounting. Or a college student who is barely able to pay tuition. “At any given point, there are many, many people who are hungry, and that impacts their ability to learn, to work, to stay healthy.”
Eventually, their health will suffer.
“Nutrition is the single most important modifiable risk factor to preventing disease,” Locke says. “In fact, as hard as it might be to believe, health behaviors like diet have more impact on a person’s overall health than clinical care.”
For the first time, most Utahns surveyed in the 2026 Community Health Needs Assessment named food insecurity as the most important non-medical factor affecting their quality of life. Compared to other social determinants like health care access, education, neighborhood environment, and social context, Utahns across 29 counties said that food insecurity that comes from economic instability was their greatest obstacle.
Food—what’s good for you, where you can buy it, and whether you can afford it—plays a larger role in our quality of life than we realize. Through scalable, sustainable programs that focus on food as an integral part of health, University of Utah Health is empowering and supporting patients in an unexpected place: their kitchens.
When Nutrition’s Out of Reach
Kristen Canton remembers a time when she could afford to make enough food to share with her friends and family.
“I love to bake,” Canton says. “I call that my love language.”
These days, her budget is tight, so she relies on coupons and weekly specials at multiple grocery stores to make ends meet. She faces a common challenge shared by those who deal with food insecurity: the food that she can most easily access—either because it is most affordable or most available through community food donations—is shelf-stable, high in sodium, and highly processed.
For Canton, limited access to nutritious food is a lurking but real contributing factor to her health. She suffers from edema and severe pulmonary hypertension. She’s on oxygen 24/7. In 2016, at 46 years old, Canton ended up in the hospital with a pulmonary embolism, and things went downhill from there. Now on disability, her favorite thing to do—when she’s not meeting with any of the eight specialists she sees to manage her health problems—is spending time with her three daughters, two grandchildren, and her husband. She loves taking care of them, even though she needs help of her own.
Canton’s story mirrors the experience of many Utahns facing food insecurity. Her health forced her to leave her job in the billing department of a pediatrician’s office. She relies on her husband’s employment and benefits to sustain their budget. They stay afloat, but barely.
He works hard, juggling two jobs, delivering batteries during the day and driving UPS trucks at night. His work schedule is from 4:30 am to 10 pm, five days a week, so they eat an early dinner together every day during his afternoon lunch break.
They don’t get any food benefits from the government. They make $300 too much each month.
Two years ago, on her way into a doctor’s appointment at a U of U Health clinic, Canton saw a charming red and white trailer in the parking lot with a sign that said, “Welcome to the Food Pharmacy.” That sign opened a new door in Canton’s quest for restored health.
Kristen Canton is one of 445,000 Utahns navigating the challenges of food insecurity. A prescription to the Food Pharmacy and access to a culinary medicine class has helped her better manage complex health issues.
Kristen Canton is one of 445,000 Utahns navigating the challenges of food insecurity. A prescription to the Food Pharmacy and access to a culinary medicine class has helped her better manage complex health issues.
Canton’s story mirrors the experience of many Utahns facing food insecurity. Her health forced her to leave her job in the billing department of a pediatrician’s office. She relies on her husband’s employment and benefits to sustain their budget. They stay afloat, but barely.
He works hard, juggling two jobs, delivering batteries during the day and driving UPS trucks at night. His work schedule is from 4:30 am to 10 pm, five days a week, so they eat an early dinner together every day during his afternoon lunch break.
They don’t get any food benefits from the government. They make $300 too much each month.
Two years ago, on her way into a doctor’s appointment at a U of U Health clinic, Canton saw a charming red and white trailer in the parking lot with a sign that said, “Welcome to the Food Pharmacy.” That sign opened a new door in Canton’s quest for restored health.
Kristen Canton is one of 445,000 Utahns navigating the challenges of food insecurity. A prescription to the Food Pharmacy and access to a culinary medicine class has helped her better manage complex health issues.
Kristen Canton is one of 445,000 Utahns navigating the challenges of food insecurity. A prescription to the Food Pharmacy and access to a culinary medicine class has helped her better manage complex health issues.
Through the Food Pharmacy and U of U Health’s Culinary Medicine programs, Canton has seen first-hand the benefits of intentional nutrition. It started when she began meeting with a health coach and receiving $25 a month to buy fresh ingredients. Now, she can’t imagine not starting every meal with a salad.
Nutrient-rich foods often cost more than less healthy foods, according to research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. For example, if a single mother with a family of four grabbed two boxes of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese for dinner (and had a little milk and butter on hand), she could quickly make a meal for about $5. To make a simple, balanced meal of whole grains, protein, and vegetables—let’s say chicken, with a serving of brown rice and broccoli on the side—the cost of that meal would be about $19, and it would take longer to make.
Food insecurity isn’t just about a lack of food—it can also be a lack of nutrition, access to resources, and education. Those who are most likely to be food insecure are often limited in more resources than just money. They may lack time, access to grocery stores, and knowledge of how to prepare a well-balanced meal. The Food Pharmacy and Culinary Medicine programs aim to help address as many of those hurdles as possible.
“It’s made a huge difference for me,” Canton said. “It’s making those better choices, eating more fruit, and adding more vegetables. After I finish the program, hopefully I can continue to keep up with this because right now it’s working for me.”
Starting from Scratch
Canton has a special jar in her fridge that holds a low sodium, high-flavor homemade salad dressing she loves. She uses it every day. She learned how to make it in a culinary medicine class her doctors recommended, one taught by dietitian students at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine to teach patients how to prepare shared meals to help treat chronic disease. On a recent afternoon, a group gathered in a similar culinary medicine class to learn how to boost their metabolism with a protein-packed breakfast.
“Hi, how are you? Welcome, take a seat anywhere,” said Theresa Dvorak, MS, RDN, director of culinary medicine, as the patients filed into a breakroom at the Rose Park Primary Care Clinic.
They sat at tables with knives, cutting boards, and bowls at the ready. Aside from a sink, refrigerator, and cook plate, the room was intentionally sparse. Each class is designed to use only basic tools that anyone, regardless of economic status, can access.
“With just a few simple pieces of equipment, you can come out with delicious, healthful meals,” Dvorak says.
A student teacher announced today’s breakfast: migas with beans, a Tex-Mex dish of scrambled eggs, sautéed vegetables, cheese, and black beans, which are full of plant-based protein.
At first, the group of strangers was quiet.
Then, slowly, as they chopped jalapeños and diced tomatoes, the aroma of cilantro filled the air, and the mood changed.
They chatted about their heart problems and their edema. They bonded over how much they loved to cook, and how hungry they were. Some of them hadn’t eaten anything yet that day.
They left with bowls full of eggs and beans with avocado and a side of yogurt, berries, and granola.
The classes fulfill a multi-pronged purpose: vulnerable patients receive healthy food and important lessons in culinary skills, and students gain preparation for the day they become clinicians.
The Culinary Medicine program brings patients, students, and clinicians together to make healthy cooking more accessible.
The Culinary Medicine program brings patients, students, and clinicians together to make healthy cooking more accessible.
The program is a thoughtful approach to bridging the divide between food insecure patients and the food that can improve their health. In Utah, 11.8 percent of households worry their food will run out before they get money to buy more. Most often, those households have individuals who are employed with benefits, but their income keeps them just above the poverty line and just out of reach for federal nutrition assistance programs.
Food insecurity can affect the elderly, people with disabilities, and those in rural areas. Even university students can be affected. In 2021, more than 30 percent of students at the University of Utah reported being food insecure, with 15 percent experiencing very low food security.
“One thing that a lot of people get confused about is, we see nutrition as a personal responsibility, when in reality there are so many factors that impact a person’s ability to eat healthy,” Locke says. “The personal piece of that—‘What I want to do’—is a small piece of what impacts what is actually going to happen. Food insecurity is, ‘Can I get enough calories?’ Nutrition insecurity is, ‘Can I get enough nutrients and eat food that is going to further my health?’”
Incorporating nutrition into health care management is a vital, long-term solution to preventing disease. Research that studied the impact of 10 food groups—including fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, processed meats, polyunsaturated fats, and sodium—found that almost 20 percent of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes costs are due to poor diet, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Leafy green vegetables like spinach, kale, and collards are shown to reduce dementia risk. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts can lower the risk of cancer. At the same time, high sodium is tied to increased blood pressure and hypertension, and ultra-processed foods are shown to increase cardiovascular disease.
Programs like culinary medicine bring these insights directly to patients so they’re better equipped to make healthy, affordable meals. It lays the foundation for education, with priceless dividends.
“Health care is designed to diagnose and treat illness—it’s not really designed to think about how to get people optimally healthy,” Locke says. “What that means is we often overlook opportunities to improve health in other ways. We haven’t designed a system that addresses that. [This] is a huge paradigm shift from health care into this idea of a whole health system.”
The Power of Food
The first time Canton stepped up to the Food Pharmacy’s window, she was impressed. Two volunteer students were waiting inside, ready to dispatch their welcome gifts and a bag of food. She, like every patient with a prescription who visits the trailer for the first time, received a supply kit with a spatula, measuring cups and spoons, cutting board, peeler, can opener, colander, tongs, saucepan, mixing bowl, and more. Then, she picked out a bag of healthy ingredients.
If, as the saying goes, teaching a person to fish can feed them for a lifetime, Canton had everything she’d need to cook by the end of her visit. Since then, she’s become a champion for the program to help others the way it helped her.
The Food Pharmacy program, which is part of the Osher Center for Integrative Health and supported by the Larry H. Miller Family Foundation’s Driving Out Diabetes Initiative, connects patients with food, but it also has a built-in follow-up system.
The pharmacy is supported by dietitians, and patients meet with wellness coaches between visits to learn new habits and skills that are relevant to their particular health challenges. Patients can receive a $25 Smith’s grocery card at those monthly visits, or return to the trailer once a month for another bag of food.
“We have a paradox where malnutrition and obesity can occur side by side,” says Sarah Zou, MPH, RDN, the clinical dietitian who oversees the Food Pharmacy’s mobile trailer. “A lot of times, people who are food insecure get calories wherever they can, and if those aren’t from a nutritious source, we run into a situation where they are both malnourished and overweight. The quality of food they can access absolutely matters.”
WELCOME TO THE FOOD PHARMACY
After opening its doors to patients in 2022, the Food Pharmacy program has helped patients in the community who are struggling with chronic nutrition-related conditions and also experiencing food insecurity.
1. PATIENTS MUST FIRST QUALIFY:
Patients like Kristen Canton need a diagnosis of a chronic condition like hypertension, heart failure, obesity, or diabetes, and be food insecure.
2. THEN, THEY RECEIVE A “PRESCRIPTION”:
Once patients receive a "prescription" from their doctor to visit the Food Pharmacy, they can visit the mobile trailer and receive a welcome gift of basic tools—like a cutting board, colander, bowls, etc.—and pick out a bag of food.
3. PATIENTS SELECT THEIR FIRST BAG OF FOOD FOR FREE:
They choose from dairy, starch, veggie, and protein options. Clinical dietitian Sarah Zou recommends beans as her favorite protein source. They’re affordable, shelf-stable, and packed with fiber and nutrients that many patients lack.
Some 500 patients have been through the program so far—and each patient can participate for up to a year.
The program receives food from U of U Health’s Nutrition Care Services, the food bank, Kroger, and Dairy West.
Because it is so creatively funded, program administrators are keeping an eye on how many patients can participate.
With more stable funding and support, this program could expand into other locations to benefit more patients. For example, there is now a food pharmacy inside the Rose Park Primary Care Clinic.
Nearly three in four adults in the U.S. have obesity, according to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This disease alone is estimated to cost the U.S. $413 billion per year.
“By incorporating conversations about food into our clinical spaces, we create synergy between medical and nutritional interventions,” Locke says. “We help patients achieve health in ways that are ultimately far less expensive than our current models. This is the medicine of the future.”
For Canton, the interventions have been working. Paired with a new medication she started a year ago, working with a health coach, and eating more healthfully, she’s lost 20 pounds and her edema is more controlled than ever.
She hopes that she’ll be able to continue these habits when she graduates from the program. “It worries me when I won’t have that extra $25 for vegetables,” Canton says. “When I think about it sometimes, I know it’s not that much, but it helps.”
The Way Forward
Still, Canton is upbeat. After working with her health coach, she’s learned ways to sneak leaner protein into her husband’s dinner, and she is determined to find a way to keep eating those salads.
“This program has changed things for me,” she says.
As U of U Health programs like Food Pharmacy and Culinary Medicine help patients one by one, Locke hopes the approach can extend beyond individual outcomes to one day have an even bigger change in the way health and nutrition intersect.
“There is surviving and there is thriving,” Locke says. “Food can be a way to lean into that thriving.”
Sometimes, the path to better health begins with a bag of groceries.
Sometimes, the path to better health begins with a bag of groceries.
From Hunger to Health
October 15, 2026
Story by Amy Choate-Nielsen, MPC
Photography by Kristan Jacobsen
Design by Jessica Cagle
Editing & Publishing by Bethany Joy Burtch, MFA, Nafisa Masud, MS, and Amy Albo, MA
Art Direction by Jesse Colby
Sometimes, the path to better health begins with a bag of groceries.
Sometimes, the path to better health begins with a bag of groceries.
From Hunger to Health
October 15, 2026
Story by Amy Choate-Nielsen, MPC
Photography by Kristan Jacobsen
Design by Jessica Cagle
Editing & Publishing by Bethany Joy Burtch, MFA, Nafisa Masud, MS, and Amy Albo, MA
Art Direction by Jesse Colby
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