Did you know that the U.S. spends around $1.1 trillion per year to treat diet-related diseases? But getting Americans to eat differently is difficult when fresh produce can cost more than high-fat, high-salt foods. “A low-income household in America has to spend up to 70% of their entire food budget on fruits and vegetables in order to meet the dietary guidelines. We have to start thinking of ‘poor diet choices’ as rational economic decisions,” said Hilary Seligman, Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California San Francisco, during Aspen Ideas: Health 2025.

To improve access to nutritious foods, and ultimately reduce health care costs, new approaches are needed, such as integrating nutrition into medical education, developing food-based interventions to prevent or manage disease, and offering incentives for purchasing fresh produce. Dig in to these big ideas with Dr. Seligman, Wendy Slusser, Associate Vice Provost of the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, John Lumpkin, President of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, and Corby Kummer, Executive Director of the Food and Society Program at the Aspen Institute.