It's going to be Victor F. He is 52 years old and he is one of our clients. He's on end-stage

renal disease so he's on our no red meat diet with regular breakfast bag and a fresh fruit

bag. We're going to come on over and deliver him some meals.

One hot day the summer, Nikki and I drove across town in Los Angeles to join Noi Garcia as

you brought a week's worth of meals to Victor. Noi works for an organization called Project

Angel Food. And Project Angel Food is one of a handful of organizations around the US that

have been pioneering a new form of medical treatment. Meals, not just any meals, but medically

tailored meals. Meals that are specifically nutritionally designed to help treat chronic

diseases. And of course because we're gastropod and we love food, we wanted to find out

of using food as medicine works. Yes, you are listening to Gastropod, the podcast that

looks at food through the lens of science and history. I'm Cynthia Grieber and I'm Nicola

Twilly and this episode can a meal really be something your doctor prescribes and your

insurance pays for? Like a drug? Is food really that effective? And if a meal can be prescribed

like a drug, then how does it work? Like how do you get a prescription for food? Who

fills it? Who pays for it? And how could that be rolled out for millions of people across

the country? This episode we are diving into the hottest topic in both food and medicine,

food as medicine. This episode is supported in part by the Bar is Welcome Fund in support

of our coverage of biomedical research and by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the public

understanding of science, technology and economics. Gastropod is part of the Vox Media

Podcast Network in partnership with Eater. Today's episode is brought to you with the

support of Vento Box and Clover. Running a restaurant is complicated. They're staff

to manage customers to win over, ingredients to order and a million other to-do's to stay

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