JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Improving the lives of patients one bite at a time. That\u2019s the goal of a food pharmacy at UF Health Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
Action News Jax told you when it opened back in 2021<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Now five in years in, doctors say patients are exceeding expectations and they hope to do more.<\/p>\n Michael Ladson went on a grocery run, combing the aisles of the UF Health Urban Health Alliance Food Pharmacy<\/b><\/a> with registered dietician Dahnine Moyer as his guide.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always nice for people to have a choice because when you give people a choice, you\u2019re actually empowering them to try new things,\u201d Moyer said.<\/p>\n Ladson got a referral from his doctor to start shopping at the food pharmacy a few years ago to help improve his heart health along with other treatments.<\/p>\n \u201cMy eating habits have changed because I was eating a lot of canned vegetables and now I\u2019m eating fresh vegetables,\u201d Ladson said.<\/p>\n Dr. Chirag Patel, Northeast Florida Regional Chief Medical Officer, said the food pharmacy gives patients with chronic conditions access to free healthy foods and nutrition counseling, tackling food insecurity and improving health outcomes. <\/p>\n \u201cFood is really the core of preventative care. It\u2019s the start of things that help you avoid getting specific diseases. You may have heard food is medicine. It really is,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n More than 160 patients are currently enrolled in the program and demand is high. Since it launched in 2021, Patel said they\u2019ve seen real results. <\/p>\n \u201cOver 80% of the patients that we had enrolled in this, saw a reduction in their hemoglobin A1C less than seven or the goal that we had set for them,\u201d Patel said. <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n Patel also noted more than 70 percent of their patients lost weight and hit their blood pressure targets.<\/p>\n Moyer said the food pharmacy isn\u2019t just nourishing bodies, it\u2019s shifting mindsets and changing lives. <\/p>\n \u201cIf I can teach you, you\u2019ll actually take it home, show your family what you\u2019re doing. You can pour into your family. You can actually teach your family too. So that\u2019s a beautiful thing,\u201d Moyer said.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Ladson said he is grateful for the difference it\u2019s made in his life. <\/p>\n \u201cMy weight has changed. I think better also. I feel better. I walk better. And I can see better,\u201d Ladson said.<\/p>\n UF Health said more than 500 people have used the food pharmacy since it launched in 2021 and more than 40,000 pounds of food have been given away so far this year.<\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Improving the lives of patients one bite at a time. That\u2019s the goal of a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":933186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,376305,9223,3188,723,11561,7310,240520,425,376303,376307,376308,133638,376306,206885,376304,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-933185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-denine_moyer","tag-doctor","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-ladson","tag-local","tag-michael_ladson","tag-moyer","tag-nu_of_health","tag-patel","tag-shirak_patel","tag-uf_health","tag-uf_health_urban_health_alliance","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116915680689262702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}