At a recent event, the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University inaugurated its Food is Medicine Institute. Concurrently, tech giant Google announced plans to join forces with the Institute, seeking to leverage technology in providing universally accessible and evidence-based nutritional data to consumers.

Under the leadership of its inaugural Director, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, the Food is Medicine Institute is poised to ignite transformative change to improve health, minimize health disparities, and foster a more equitable health system centered around the power of food. The Institute‘s endeavors aim to incorporate Food is Medicine principles into electronic health records, clinical care paths, and referral systems, while rallying support from public health proponents to influence and enhance federal nutrition policies.

“Food is Medicine represents the first substantial, impactful intervention that I’ve encountered in my career, capable of genuinely improving health and mitigating healthcare disparities,” commented Dr. Mozaffarian.

Google pledges to back the Food is Medicine Institute by employing its advanced technology to refine and enhance the quality of nutrition information available to the online consumer community. Nira Goren, in charge of Health Information Quality at Google, helms Google‘s Food is Medicine initiative. The initiative‘s objective is to bolster the creation of products and programs designed to uplift the quality of nutritional information. Google also intends to facilitate improved access to high-quality food via strategic collaborations with leaders in the food quality sphere.

“Google’s overarching mission encompasses organizing the world’s information, ensuring it’s universally accessible and utilizable, a vision that unequivocally covers nutrition information,” Goren shared during a panel discussion at the event.

While the World Health Organization has continually recognized socio-structural factors like income and housing as crucial determinants of health, Goren underscores how the pandemic has unearthed yet another fundamental determinant: information.

Goren noted, “Nearly three-fourths of individuals in the U.S. primarily seek health and wellness information via the internet.”

In collaboration with the Food is Medicine Institute, Google intends to deploy its technology for rendering timely, accurate, and useful data that will enable individuals and organizations to make informed food choices. Goren views the Institute’s launch as a watershed moment, crucial in empowering the public to make educated decisions regarding nutrition.

“Recognizing nutrition as essential to maintaining health, if we can equip people and organizations to make optimal food choices, we stand to enhance the health of billions globally,” professed Goren, adding, “We regard Food is Medicine as crucial to this mission, and we are thrilled to align with this community, collectively propelling this critical field forward.”