Insights + Perspectives
Food plays a powerful role in shaping health and preventing and managing disease. To help individuals understand this role and apply it to their own lives, medical nutrition therapy (MNT) offers personalized, evidence-based dietary strategies that empower individuals to make informed choices, manage chronic conditions, and improve their overall well-being.
What is medical nutrition therapy?
With continuing evidence that nutritious food has the power to heal, more people are looking for ways to improve their diet and understand which foods can support their health. Through the guidance of a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN), MNT uses individually tailored nutrition plans to help patients manage or prevent health issues. This can include conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, chronic kidney disease (CKD), high blood pressure or digestive problems.
By providing a nutritional assessment and counseling, MNT outlines which diet and lifestyle changes could be beneficial for managing a specific condition and achieve certain goals, like controlling weight, lowering blood sugar or reducing the risk of other diseases.
What are the benefits of medical nutrition therapy?
Much more than just a diet plan, MNT is a medically proven approach that supports long-term health management and prevention of disease. By using food as a tool for healing and health, individuals can feel more empowered to manage their chronic conditions and improve their overall well-being. MNT can help improve health outcomes, alleviate symptoms, improve overall quality of life and reduce health care costs.
The key benefits of MNT include:
- Promotes informed food choices
One of the top advantages of MNT is helping educate individuals about their health needs and which eating and lifestyle habits are best suited for managing their disease or chronic condition. With this knowledge, they can make more informed decisions about their diet and health. - Provides customized nutrition plans
Since everyone’s body is different, MNT offers a personalized medical nutrition program that fits specific needs, family history, food allergies and health conditions. - Management of chronic conditions
Through evidence-based nutrition strategies, individuals can follow recommendations for which foods to avoid and which options are beneficial when managing their specific health condition. - Helps alleviate symptoms
Since MNT can target some of the root causes of health issues, individuals can identify which foods help ease symptoms, like reducing inflammation, stabilizing blood sugar levels, improving digestion and supporting healthy weight management. - Reduces the risks of health complications
By promoting a balanced, nutrient-rich diet, MNT can help address certain risk factors, like imbalanced blood sugar levels, obesity or high cholesterol. This proactive approach can help prevent the development of additional health issues or complications. - Helps improve health outcomes and lowers health care costs
By helping manage chronic conditions more effectively, MNT can potentially reduce health care costs and the need for expensive medical treatments, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, readmissions and some medications.
What health conditions can MNT help manage?
It can be used as part of a treatment plan for a variety of medical conditions, helping to manage symptoms, improve health outcomes and prevent further complications.
- Diabetes
Research has shown that MNT is linked to reductions in hemoglobin A1C levels, with decreases ranging from 0.3% to 2% in individuals with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Following a nutrition plan can help individuals gain practical tools for day-to-day meal planning and allow them to more effectively manage weight, improve glycemic control and blood lipids and delay or prevent complications of diabetes. - Heart disease
Heart-healthy dietary changes recommended through MNT can help lower the risk of cardiovascular disease by reducing sodium and saturated fat intake and increasing fiber and healthy fats. This can improve cholesterol levels, manage blood pressure and reduce inflammation. - Chronic kidney disease
For individuals looking to manage CKD or improve renal health, studies have shown that dietary modifications, like controlling protein intake, can help slow the progression of chronic kidney disease and improve kidney function. - Cancer
Since cancer and its treatments may affect how a person eats, which foods their body tolerates or their nutrient intake, MNT can be an important part of their health program. Eating a well-balanced diet during cancer treatment or to prevent a relapse can help reduce side effects, such as fatigue and weight loss, and help the body heal and recover more quickly. - Gastrointestinal disorders
Patients who have a digestive health disorder or chronic illness like celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis or inflammatory bowel disease can benefit from MNT by understanding which foods can affect symptoms and ways they can improve nutrient intake. - Dysphagia
For people living with dysphagia, swallowing can be difficult and at times painful, which can put them at higher risk for malnutrition. MNT can suggest diet changes and other ideas for boosting nutrition intake and safely consuming the calories needed to live a healthier life.
The power of food as medicine
Growing research highlights the health benefits of food as medicine and its role in disease prevention and management. For example, Health Plan of Nevada, a UnitedHealthcare Company, partnered with Mom’s Meals® on a pilot program to support diabetes management for 224,648 Medicaid members. The initiative addressed food and nutrition insecurity, providing enrollees with weekly nurse contact and two daily meals for eight weeks.
Results showed:
- 17.5% decrease in A1c
- Increased engagement
- Improved medication adherence
- 32% reduction in total health care costs
Another pilot program jointly run by Inland Empire Health Plan in California and Mom’s Meals provided over 28,000 medically tailored meals and nutritional counseling to dually eligible (Medicare-Medicaid) members in California for a period of six months. These individuals had congestive heart failure and a minimum of two hospital stays within the previous year.
Program results included:
- 50% reduction in both emergency department visits and hospitalizations
- 39% reduction in length of stay
- Cumulative total weight loss of 339 pounds
- 25% reduction in total costs
Mom’s Meals provides support with food as medicine solutions
Mom’s Meals is the leading provider of comprehensive food as medicine solutions with published improved health outcomes that drive lasting change. This includes ready-to-heat-and-eat, refrigerated, medically tailored home-delivered meals delivered to any address nationwide, nutritional counseling, other forms of nutrition support and personalized engagement.
Eating better for a health condition is easier and convenient with Mom’s Meals. We offer nine condition-specific menus including diabetes, heart- and kidney-friendly options, designed by our RDNs and professional chefs. All meals are crafted in USDA- and FDA- inspected facilities, providing the highest level of compliance with federal regulations governing food production.
Delivered direct to homes nationwide, our delicious meals help individuals manage their unique nutritional requirements.
