01/10/2025
Poor diets are harming our economy
The combined healthcare spending and lost productivity from suboptimal diets cost the economy $1.1 trillion each year. This equals the entire economic output of the food system — for every $1 we spend on food, the economy loses $1 in health harms.
- About 85% of all healthcare spending is related to the management of diet-related chronic diseases.
- Each year, the direct medical costs of diabetes are $237 billion, and another $90 billion is lost from reduced productivity. Yet studies show that type 2 diabetes is largely treatable, and preventable, with good nutrition.
- Food is Medicine interventions can effectively bend these cost curves. For example, $13.6 billion could be saved annually if all eligible Americans received medically tailored meals through the healthcare system, even after accounting for the cost of the program.
- Other Food is Medicine interventions, like Produce Prescriptions, appear highly cost-effective, similar to foundational healthcare priorities like blood pressure and cholesterol screening and control.
Source: Tufts University
