At the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2025, Dr. Ambarish Pandey presented the late-breaking FOOD-HF trial, a randomized study testing whether foodas-medicine strategies could improve outcomes after a recent heart failure hospitalization. The trial enrolled 150 adults within 14 days of discharge and compared medically tailored meals, fresh produce delivery, and usual care dietary counseling, with all interventions delivered over 90 days.
The main message was encouraging: providing healthy food support after discharge was feasible, acceptable, and associated with clinically meaningful improvement in quality of life compared with dietary counseling alone. According to the American Heart Association news release and related meeting coverage, participants receiving food delivery had higher odds of achieving a meaningful improvement in heart-failure health status, and this apparent benefit was seen primarily in the fresh produce group.
A win-ratio analysis indicated that fresh produce delivery had the most favorable overall health status. However, FOOD-HF did not show a significant reduction in heart-failure hospitalizations or emergency department visits over the study period. Therefore the trial represents an early proof-of-concept that nutritional support may improve how patients feel and function after discharge. This underscores the importance of reliable access to healthy food during a vulnerable post-hospital period. As presented at AHA 2025, FOOD-HF adds momentum to the growing “food is medicine” movement and supports further, larger trials powered for clinical events.
