Food as medicine programs changing diabetes care in pediatric and adult patients | ADA 2026

When people lack reliable access to nutritious food, managing their blood sugar can become difficult, no matter how good the clinical advice. Two recent studies are putting that reality front and center, demonstrating that "food is medicine" interventions can produce meaningful improvements in diabetes outcomes across very different patient populations. Both abstracts were submitted as part of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 2026 Scientific Sessions in New Orleans.

Helping kids before the crisis deepens

The first study, “Diabetes, Dietary, and Behavioral Findings in a Food Is Medicine Intervention in Youth With Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes,” conducted at a large academic medical center, focused on a population rarely studied in this context: children and teenagers. Researchers enrolled 127 food-insecure youth with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, averaging 15 years old, with 57% identifying as Black and 44% as Hispanic or Latino, and 84% covered by public insurance. For 12 months, participants received weekly home deliveries of medically supplemental groceries designed to support diabetes management.

Researchers found that at six months, hemoglobin A1c, a key marker of blood sugar control, declined significantly across both the prediabetes and type 2 diabetes groups. Decreases were also seen in depressive symptoms, food insecurity and intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and junk food.

Diabetes cases are increasing among young people in the United States. According to the ADA, 364,000 individuals under the age of 20 have been diagnosed with diabetes in the U.S. In 2022, the annual incidence of diagnosed Type 1 cases was nearly 22,000 and nearly 15,000 of Type 2.

Diabetes also disproportionately affects low-income communities of color, and yet prospective food-as-medicine research in this age group has been largely absent.

These findings fill a critical gap and make a compelling case for expanding medically supportive food access to younger patients before their conditions worsen.

Support Makes Healthy Eating Stick

In the second study, “Enhancing a ‘Food Is Medicine Program’ with Coaching From Community Health Workers Shows Significant Improvements in Health Outcomes for People with Diabetes,” researchers asked whether pairing food access with personalized coaching could further amplify results. To investigate, they enrolled 284 adults with type 2 diabetes through a community-based organization in Stockton, California. Over six months, participants in two successive program rounds received biweekly food boxes through the established Healthy Food Rx program. Trained community health workers also delivered monthly health coaching sessions, conducted in English, Spanish or Khmer.

Results showed that food insecurity dropped significantly in both rounds. Daily fruit, vegetable and water consumption increased, as did physical activity. Diabetes self-management tasks, such as monitoring glucose and taking medications consistently, also trended upward. Mental health was positively impacted, with the number of participants reporting good or better mental and physical health approximately doubling over the course of the program.

Type 2 diabetes is more common than type 1, accounting for approximately 90% to 95% of all diabetes diagnoses, whereas type 1 accounts for approximately 5% to 10%.

Additionally, 2 in 5 people in the U.S. have prediabetes, and approximately 80% of those do not know they have it. Both prediabetes and type 2 can be prevented with lifestyle changes, such as the ones outlined in the abstracts above.

Together, these studies suggest that addressing food insecurity is an important step to improving diabetes care.