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Doctors across the country are prescribing fruits and vegetables to their overweight and obese patients. But the health benefits extend beyond weight loss.
The latest trend in medical prescriptions isn’t a pill, cream, or injectable: It’s the bounty of the produce section.
Through programs like Wholesome Wave’s Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Plan and HealthPartners’ vegetable prescription initiative in Minnesota, doctors across the country are prescribing vegetables and fruits to combat obesity.
While the Rx’d veggies movement — which focuses on overweight and obese children, and their increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes — sounds unconventional in a medical world that includes surgery, drugs, and generic advice to “eat less and move more,” it’s no secret that produce packs a powerful nutritious punch.
Here are some ways that fruits and vegetables improve your health, inside and out:
1. They’re full of phytonutrients. These plant-based micronutrients may protect against chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
2. They feed your body — and your brain. According to Mark Hyman, MD, plant-based carbohydrates such as vegetables and fruits play an integral role in brain function and mood regulation.
3. They’re a good source of fiber, a natural detoxifier that impacts health in more ways than one.
4. You can grow your own. The act of tending a garden has numerous health benefits beyond the edible harvest, thanks to the physical activity, exposure to fresh air and dirt, and lessons in patience and delayed gratification that are inherent in the process.
Tell us: Do you think it’s wise to use prescriptions as a way to encourage people to eat more vegetables? Or should healthcare providers be wary of medicalizing food? Share your thoughts in the comments below or via Twitter @experiencelife.
More on Vegetables:
More on Obesity:
- United States of Diabesity
- Childhood obesity reportedly decreasing, though why is not clear
- Tackling Childhood Obesity
- Obesity and the Brain: How Exercise May Help Combat Cognitive Decline
- DDT: The reason Americans are overweight?
More on Healthcare:
- Functional Wellness and Healthcare Reform
- How Empowered Health Seekers Are Redefining Healthcare
- The New View of Health
More on Eating Local:
One way to encourage a person to eat fruits and veggies is not through prescription but through a powerful testimony of how good and effective the diet is to one’s health. There is power when a person sees the great improvement of one’s health and for sure he/she will copy also what he/she is doing or eating. We don’t need a prescription in order for the people to get healthy, but just by setting a good example, one can have a healthy, happy, and illness-free life.