From pharmacy to farmacy: giving food and healthcare systems a fresh start

While modern medicine has made incredible leaps and bounds with respect to pharmaceuticals and clinical treatments, recent years have also seen a rise in integrative medicine which does not diminish these advances but focuses on how to address health issues at their core and reduce the need for pharmaceutical interventions.

"The quickest way to get patients out of the doctor's office is to prescribe pills, but this only manages the disease and does not cure it. If you invest upfront in food as medicine, you reduce disease in the population, which makes a healthier society while also reducing stress on medical institutions," says Dr. Robert Graham, co-founder of FRESH Med.

Robert is a distinguished chef and physician with more than 20 years of experience in internal and integrative medicine while his wife and FRESH Med co-founder Julie Graham brings more than 25 years of experience in integrative nutrition, positive psychology, yoga, meditation and aromatherapy. Together, they developed the FRESH approach in 2016 and have been bringing it to individuals and corporate settings alike ever since.

Fresh Five: Food, Relaxation, Exercise, Sleep and Happiness – the Recipe (Rx) to health
FRESH Med is an integrative medicine practice that goes beyond pharmaceuticals to focus on the true fundamentals of human health: Food, Relaxation, Exercise, Sleep and Happiness. To bring these pillars of health into the light, FRESH Med has developed a multi-pronged integrative health and wellness program that is supervised by physicians and based on the latest scientific research.

Through an integrated medicine consultation with Dr. Graham, patients collaborate to develop a personalized care plan with a pathway to help individuals reach their health and wellness goals. While pharmaceuticals may play a role in this health plan if needed, the FRESH Med truly focuses on its five pillars of food, relaxation, exercise, sleep and happiness.

To further help individuals on their integrated health journeys, FRESH Med U was developed and offers online classes for each of the pillars. With one class per pillar, FRESH Med U provides a deep dive into the science beyond each pillar.

Beyond its pre-designed courses, FRESH Med also works with corporate partners to deliver health and wellness programs in the workplace to improve the wellbeing of employees. But even for companies not collaborating directly with the organization on employee health and wellness programs, the hope is that programs like FRESH Med be included in employee benefit packages, As Julie explains, the programs and educational content offered by FRESH Med can have a direct and immediate impact on employee health, with classes on stress management being a clear example of this. If food-based medicine has proven positive impacts on human health in the way pill-based medicine does, why shouldn't it be included in company benefits packages?

And one step further: if food-based medicine proves to improve human health like pharmaceutical-based medicine (and on a longer term, FRESH Med maintains), could we see the rise of "medically tailored groceries and fresh produce prescriptions," as Robert posits? This could lead to the rise of what Julie and Robert call the "farmacy", in contrast to the "pharmacy".

The role of fresh produce
The idea of a doctor prescribing fresh fruits and veggies (as an example) seems fairly unimaginable to many people. And in places where wait times are long and doctors' visits are short, it would probably feel underwhelming to have your physician tell you to eat more fresh produce – especially when the food system is based on maximizing convenience and minimizing cost.

"Decision fatigue is real. Changing consumption habits needs to be packaged in a way that is easy and doesn't make people have to think too hard about it. There is a lot going on in the world and as the day goes on, our decision-making gets poorer and poorer. So, nutrition education needs to be provided and nutritional food needs to be available," explains Julie.

So, where does CEA come into play? As Robert explains, "the whole thing about CEA is that you can control nearly everything to then optimize the compounds and functional elements in the food, which can lead to a higher nutritional density,". And given the havoc caused by environmental changes on field protection of crops, CEA also provides a certain stability in food supply. That said, the duo also notes that greenhouses and indoor farms can often act more like monocultures, with commercial greenhouses often focusing on tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, strawberries, etc. while indoor farms are mostly focusing on leafy greens.

"These technologies are focusing on a few high-value crops, but it would be good for it to be more diverse and focus on the various foods that a community wants to eat. We try to eat seasonally and focus on nutrient density," says Robert. "For example, sulforaphane is a compound found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and it has been linked to cancer prevention, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties."

How can CEA respond to meet the growing needs for food overall, as well as the growing need for nutrient-dense food? For FRESH Med, it has been all about building the bridge between farmers, agrifood companies and healthcare systems.

"Our food system and healthcare system need a fresh start, and that starts with food. It needs to be built into the medical system," says Robert. "We need to have growers, healthcare workers, legislative people, etc. all in a room," Julie explains.

If the evolution towards food medicine continues to gain traction, the increased demand for diversity in fresh, local produce throughout the year could lead the CEA industry to expand its crop portfolio and prioritize nutritional density.

"Tomatoes does contain lycopene, an antioxidant. And peppers contain anthocyanin, which has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. But there is so much more that we can pull from plants. That's why a food-based, and specifically a plant-based approach is so important for human health," says Robert.

For more information:
FRESH Med
Julie Graham, Co-Founder and CEO
Dr. Robert Graham, Co-Founder
hi@freshmednyc.com
www.freshmednyc.com