Nutrition's Role in Good Health

At Healthfirst, we are committed to ensuring that in the communities we serve our members can access high-quality, affordable healthcare. In recent years our commitment to keeping our members happy and healthy has resulted in the formation of trusting relationships with organizations that support our members across our service area. These collaborations with community, faith-based, and municipal organizations are aimed at reducing the impact of social determinants of health and bridging the gaps in care for underserved populations.

Food insecurity and lack of access to nutritious foods—the latter of which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified as a key social determinant of health—are common concerns across our New York communities. Other findings from the CDC help illustrate the importance of access to nutritious foods:

• The availability of healthy, affordable foods contributes to a person’s diet and risk of related chronic diseases.
• Each year, chronic diseases account for 70% of all deaths in the United States. Poor diets lead to chronic illnesses such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
• American diets are generally poor in nutritional quality and do not align with the dietary guidelines for Americans.
• Low-income and minority communities often lack convenient places that offer affordable, healthier foods.

Source: CDC

While these findings hold true within the Healthfirst service area, research from City Harvest, an organization Healthfirst collaborates with to address food insecurity, paints a clearer picture of the difficulty for families in achieving good nutrition:

• 1.2 million New Yorkers struggle to feed themselves and their families
• 1 in 5 children in New York City don’t know where their next meal will come from
• Visits to soup kitchens are up more than 60% compared to pre-pandemic levels

Source: City Harvest

Healthfirst embeds within the communities we serve to better understand the needs of our members and develop a cultural competency to help meet those needs. Two Registered Dietitian Nutritionists who work with our members provide firsthand accounts of what they experience working across the Healthfirst service area:

“Some of the most pervasive issues in the communities we serve is the lack of health literacy and difficulty navigating our very complex healthcare system. I work very closely with our diabetic population, many of whom tell me they have had diabetes for 10, 20, even 30 years; however, they are unable to say what the targets are for their blood sugar checks or explain how their diet and lifestyle may be impacting their diabetes. Additionally, we try to educate and connect our members to certain services and supplies—such as continuous glucose monitors or referrals to see endocrinologists—that can facilitate managing their diabetes. Many of these members were not aware that they are eligible for these services or don’t know how to go about getting them. The clinical teams at Healthfirst work tirelessly to educate and empower our members to be able to manage their health through education, support, and connection to outside services and organizations.”

- Victoria Middleton RDN, CAPM, CDCES

“Cultural preferences and traditions play significant roles in food choices within the diverse population that we work with at Healthfirst. Understanding and respecting these cultural influences is important in finding creative ways to modify diet to provide effective nutrition counseling to promote healthier eating habits. Healthfirst takes a very collaborative approach in helping our members attain their personal health goals. We work closely with the care managers to conduct comprehensive assessments and develop individualized plans to address members’ specific needs. For example, if a member has limited access to food resources, we will connect them with resources such as food pantries, assistance with application for SNAP benefits, or home-delivered meals.”

Mavis Ren, MPH, RDN, CDN, CDCES

As Mavis mentions in her testimonial, Healthfirst works collaboratively across teams internally, and that teamwork-oriented blueprint for success is applied externally as well with community-based, faith-based, and municipal organizations. A great example of this collaboration is our collaboration with Pronto of Long Island, explored in a recent article discussing food insecurity in Suffolk County and authored by my colleague Ricky Pafundi , VP of Retention and Customer Loyalty at Healthfirst.

I will add, as someone who grew up needing supplemental food assistance (Government cheese, anyone?), I wish my family and I had had a Healthfirst ally to help us get what we needed in a timely way. I am proud to work for a company that provides such comprehensive services for families in need. ?

At Healthfirst, the work to keep our members and the communities we serve happy and healthy continues every day. I encourage anyone interested in learning more about ways to improve their health to visit our Healthy Resources section on healthfirst.org .

?About the Author

Miguel Centeno is Vice President of Community Engagement at Healthfirst.