Foodsmart Powered the First Randomized Controlled Trial to Prove Foodcare Significantly Lowers Blood Sugar in Diabetes

Published in the American Heart Association's Circulation, the Kaiser Permanente and Tufts University trial used foodcare—nutrition counseling, food benefits, and digital support—as the intervention.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time, according to the study's authors, a randomized controlled trial has shown that medically tailored groceries can significantly lower blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes. The intervention—access to telehealth nutrition counseling, weekly home-delivered medically tailored groceries, and matched recipes—was delivered by Foodsmart. Medicaid-insured adults receiving it significantly improved blood sugar and were far more likely to become food and nutrition secure than those receiving usual care alone. The findings were published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

Foodsmart Founder & Chief Science Officer Jason Langheier, MD, MPH shared: "I started Foodsmart on a simple conviction: that foodcare is the most important, underutilized facet of American healthcare, particularly for low-income families. Now we've added proof in a gold standard randomized controlled trial with the leading payvider, Kaiser Permanente, and some of the top nutrition scientists at Tufts. Clinical outcomes such as HbA1c and food security improved significantly when families had access to nutrition counseling and recipe guidance tied to real food received at home. At a time when chronic disease and weight loss medication spending continues to grow, this is a reminder that improving what people eat remains foundational to managing diabesity, and that it can be delivered affordably, at scale today."

Key results

The trial enrolled 460 Medicaid-insured adults with persistently elevated blood sugar (mean baseline HbA1c: 9.4%); roughly two-thirds were using insulin. Participants were randomly assigned to usual care or to Foodsmart nutrition counseling and delivered medically tailored groceries scaled to household size, with matched recipes.

In the trial, the Foodsmart intervention improved blood sugar, nutrition security (reliable access to healthy food), and food security (reliable access to enough food), with benefits seen across the range of disease severity:

• Blood sugar improved: the intervention group's HbA1c fell 0.66 percentage points over six months; compared with the usual-care group, the net reduction attributable to the intervention was 0.40 percentage points—a statistically significant effect (P=0.016).
  • Fewer patients stayed severely uncontrolled: among intervention participants, the share with HbA1c ≥10% fell from 28% to 19%, while usual care held roughly flat (31% to 28%).
  • More patients reached controlled diabetes: by six months, 8.9% of intervention participants brought their HbA1c below 7% (a standard provider target for controlled A1c), compared with 3.4% under usual care (from a starting point of zero in both groups).
• Nutrition security nearly doubled, from 31% to 60%: more than triple the odds versus usual care (odds ratio 3.65; P<0.001).
• Food security rose from 37% to 50%: more than double the odds of becoming food secure (odds ratio 2.12; P=0.020).
  • Reduced healthcare utilization and cost: "The study noted: "The… intervention substantially reduced food insecurity, a social stressor associated with worse nutrition, health, and utilization outcomes." However, the trial did not measure these directly.

In a population that health programs routinely struggle to reach, participation was nearly universal: 94% never missed a delivery, 83% ate most or all of the food provided, and 86% were satisfied or very satisfied.

Why it matters

Type 2 diabetes is rising fastest among low-income and marginalized populations, where food insecurity is common and blood sugar is often hardest to control. This trial shows that a foodcare intervention can move the outcomes that matter for these patients and do it in the Medicaid population that health systems have struggled most to reach. The results arrive as a growing number of states move to cover nutrition services through Medicaid, giving health plans randomized evidence to justify and design those programs.

"Plans are increasing their investment in nutrition programs, and they expect these programs to improve clinical outcomes. This trial shows they do: improving blood sugar in a real Medicaid population, with results that meet actuarial standards that plans and states need to ensure the sustainability of these benefits," said Jason Stenta, Foodsmart's Chief Commercial Officer.

About the study: a credible, independent result
The trial adds rigorous evidence to a field that has largely relied on studies without randomized control groups. It was designed, conducted, and analyzed by researchers at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, and The George Institute for Global Health; Foodsmart delivered the intervention tested in the trial — the telehealth nutrition counseling and the medically tailored groceries — while Tufts and Kaiser Permanente led the study design, analysis and conclusions.

Full results, including subgroup and sensitivity analyses, appear in the published paper: "Effects of a 'Food Is Medicine' Intervention on Glucose Control Among Medicaid-Insured Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Trial," Circulation (2026). Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05407376).

About Foodsmart
Foodsmart is the leading foodcare platform in the U.S. Foodcare is the infrastructure that combines clinical nutrition care, behavior-change tools, food benefits, and data to improve health outcomes and lower healthcare costs. Powered by a national network of Registered Dietitians and serving more than 3 million members, Foodsmart makes foodcare operational at scale for Medicaid managed care organizations, Medicare Advantage plans, commercial plans, and employers nationwide. Learn more at www.foodsmart.com.

SOURCE Foodsmart