When patients at Boston Medical Center pick up their prescriptions, they may not be getting

what you think.

So we have peanut butter, banana, cucumbers, beans, raisins, banana squash, cabbage, eggplant,

some tuna fish, some mac and cheese, peas, bean peas.

Latchman Herellal has worked at BMC so-called food pharmacy since it first opened 20 years

ago.

Now this isn't your usual dry chicken, pudding cup, hospital food.

Patients with long-term health conditions are actually prescribed, bi-weekly groceries,

by their physicians.

The food pharmacy is in the basement of the hospital and it's almost like a mini grocery

store with walk-in freezers and shelves full of food and boxes of fresh vegetables.

Here's potatoes, onions and carrots and this family is ready to go.

The idea is so simple.

Patients are literally prescribed food by their doctors to help treat conditions like

hypertension, diabetes, obesity in heart disease.

The staff will look at the chart and they will tell them if the patient is diabetic,

hypertensive, we'll note white rice, regular pasta, so we'll give them brown rice,

or diabetic, you know, whole wheat pasta, so everything is healthy.

Everything here is free for the patients so they can eat healthy without having to worry

about the cost.

I'm so fascinated by this because this particular program is the first hospital-based

therapeutic food pharmacy in the country where food is medicine.

...