Making nutritious meals is no easy feat, due to the high costs of groceries and high rates of burnout among workers. And yet, it may be the key to preventing chronic diseases and lowering healthcare costs.
According to the CDC, chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes, account for nearly 75% of healthcare spending in the U.S. But it’s estimated that more than 90% of type 2 diabetes, 80% of Coronary artery disease (a common type of heart disease) and 70% of strokes are potentially preventable, with diet being a prominent factor, as cited by the National Institute of Health. So shouldn’t access to nutritional food be an essential healthcare benefit?
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Samantha Citro-Alexander, the CEO of healthcare company Bitewell, knows this firsthand, and is advocating for better alignment between how people eat and their health outcomes. When Citro-Alexander was 12 years old, she suddenly went from being an average, healthy kid to losing 30% of her body weight in six months for seemingly no reason. When doctors prescribed shakes to help her gain weight, her condition only worsened.
“It turns out that I was just severely lactose intolerant and eating all the wrong foods for my body, including the thing that was prescribed to me to help me gain weight and get better,” says Citro-Alexander. “Food is such a massive boon in disease prevention and personal health, in addition to treatment and care. But when you look at benefits spending in the U.S., food and nutrition are a very small fraction.”
Citro-Alexander’s experiences inspired her to create Bitewell, which is centered on helping employees pay for and choose the best foods for their health goals and conditions. Employers decide how much money to give their employees to spend toward food, and Bitewell provides nutritional intelligence on 85% of the U.S. food supply, explains Citro-Alexander. Then, by analyzing the user’s individual health status and needs, Bitewell’s “foodhealth” score rates the food they’re choosing on a scale of one to 10. Their database includes everyday groceries as well as meals people get at their local restaurants.
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“When an employee onboards with us, we create their employee health profile to help them understand if a food they’re looking at is going to contribute positively to their individual health,” she says. “Through that foodhealth score, we are able to put parameters around how those employer food dollars are spent in our application — for example, you might only be able to spend it on foods that score six out of 10 or above.”
Because the scoring is individualized, users can potentially enjoy new foods or ones previously labeled “bad.” This feature is vital to users making healthier, long-term lifestyle changes, says Citro-Alexandra.
“We are not taking a blanket health stance on foods, but really taking your needs into consideration,” she says. “Most people would look at a bowl of oatmeal with honey, banana and berries and think it’s healthy, but that [meal] could score anywhere from an eight out of 10 to a two out of 10. It depends on you.”
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Bitewell has only been on the market since January, but employers who have added the platform have already seen a 91% employee adoption rate, and 85% of users engage with the platform each week, according to Bitewell data.
Citro-Alexander advises employers not to underestimate the role food plays in their employees’ health and to consider whether their workforce has access to nutritious foods and education. She is confident employers can’t truly have a holistic view of healthcare — particularly preventative care — if they leave food out of the picture.
“Food is one of the only things that you do multiple times a day for your health,” says Citro-Alexander. “Take this moment that happens three, four or five times a day and use it as a healthcare measure to drive down costs and transform change in the medical industry in our country.”
