Research Highlights:
Embargoed until 10:15 a.m. CT/11:15 a.m. ET, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025
This news release contains updated information from the research authors that was not in the abstract.
NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 10, 2025 — Providing healthy, medically tailored meals or boxes of fresh produce along with nutrition counseling with a dietitian led to improved quality of life for people with heart failure compared to people who received dietary counseling without healthy food deliveries, according to a preliminary late-breaking science presentation today at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2025 . The meeting, Nov. 7-10, in New Orleans, is a premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements, research and evidence-based clinical practice updates in cardiovascular science.
“People with heart failure can often experience their condition worsening if they are not eating the right kind of food after they go home from the hospital,” said lead study author Ambarish Pandey, M.D., M.S., FAHA, an associate professor of internal medicine in the division of cardiology and geriatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and medical director of the center’s heart failure with preserved ejection fraction program. “People need nutritious meals that can provide them with the right nutrients for optimal health, including the appropriate calorie intake, the right amount of protein and limited sodium, sugar and fat.”
This randomized trial included 150 adults who were enrolled within two weeks of being discharged from the hospital for acute heart failure. Researchers assigned participants to one of three groups: one group received medically tailored meals and dietary counseling with a dietitian; the second group received fresh produce boxes and dietary counseling; and the third group received dietary counseling without food delivery. Participants receiving either meals or produce were also divided into two subgroups. One subgroup only received food if they picked up their medications from the pharmacy and attended their follow-up clinic appointments. The other subgroup received food whether or not they picked up their medications or attended appointments at the clinic. The meals and grocery food delivery programs lasted for 90 days.
The study’s key findings include:
“These findings indicate the potential for healthy foods to affect outcomes and disease progression for people with chronic conditions like heart failure. If we can identify the best strategy for providing access to healthy food, this could be transformative for people with heart failure who are particularly vulnerable after hospitalization,” Pandey said. “I think healthy food can be as powerful as medications for people with chronic conditions like heart failure.”
Access to healthy food is a social factor that contributes to overall health including cardiovascular disease risk and outcomes. Current evidence indicates that food insecurity, or limited access to enough food, and nutrition insecurity, or limited access to healthy foods, are both associated with more chronic health conditions and worse outcomes. According to the American Heart Association’s 2025 Scientific Statement, Systematic Review of “Food Is Medicine” Randomized Controlled Trials for Noncommunicable Disease in U.S. , programs that incorporate healthy food and health care for people with or at high risk for chronic disease showed great potential in improving diet quality and food security.
Study details, background and design:
The study limitations include its small size of only 150 patients and short follow-up period of only 90 days. Larger studies with more participants and following patients for a longer time period are needed to assess whether food programs may lower hospitalizations or improve survival rates. Pandey and colleagues are planning a phase 3 trial with 1,200–1,500 people at multiple hospitals.
The trial was funded by the American Heart Association’s Health Care by Food™ initiative. This initiative is conducting scientific research, public policy advocacy and stakeholder education to advance food is medicine interventions that incorporate healthy food into health care to treat, manage and prevent diet-related diseases.
Co-authors and disclosures are listed in the manuscript.
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