Tag Archives: Food as Medicine

A Mother on a Mission to Fix Maternal Nutrition: How Mother of Fact’s Nutrition Care Saves Mothers & Babies

November 4, 2025Business, Food as Medicine Moonshot, Health, Healthcare, Innovation, StartupsChildrens Health, Emily Sylvester, Food as Medicine, Health, health equity, Health Moonshot, Health Moonshot Update, Health Transformer, Health Transformers, maternal health, Mother of Fact, Unity Stoakes, womens healthNicole Kinsey

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One-third of maternal deaths are linked to malnutrition or lack of nutrition care. StartUp Health community member Emily Sylvester, MS, RD, is determined to change that.

As CEO & Founder of Mother of Fact, Emily is building a future where every pregnant person has access to continuous, reimbursable nutrition care – embedded into women’s health workflows and culturally tailored to each family’s needs.

In this conversation with StartUp Health Co-founder Unity Stoakes, Emily shares:
• Why maternal care must shift upstream
• How Mother of Fact delivers a 2–3x ROI for clinics
• New data showing major reductions in complications
• Her founder journey after witnessing a preventable tragedy
• The role of equity in the future of maternal health

Listen to learn how wildly different nutrition care can improve outcomes for moms – and help health systems thrive.

Are you ready to tell YOUR story? Members of our Health Moonshot Communities are leading startups with breakthrough technology-driven solutions for the world’s biggest health challenges. Exposure in StartUp Health Media to our global audience of investors and partners – including our podcast, newsletters, magazine, and YouTube channel – is a benefit of our Health Moonshot PRO Membership. To schedule a call and see if you qualify to join and increase brand awareness through our multi-media storytelling efforts, submit our three-minute application. If you’re mission-driven, collaborative, and ready to contribute as much as you gain, you might be the perfect fit.
» Learn more and apply today.

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How Suggestic Is Transforming Sick Care into Scalable Healthcare

October 9, 2025Food as Medicine Moonshot, Health, Healthcare, Innovation, StartupsFood as Medicine, Health Moonshot, Health Moonshot Communities, Health Transformers, Suggestic, Unity StoakesNicole Kinsey

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Discover how Suggestic is transforming healthcare by turning food into a powerful therapeutic tool. In this episode of StartUp Health NOW, Unity Stoakes sits down with new StartUp Health community members Shai Rosen and Carver Anderson to unpack their company’s innovative approach to personalized nutrition and wellness technology.

From their unique journeys – Carver’s roots in medical equipment and Shai’s transition from aspiring doctor to tech innovator – the duo shares how they’re bridging the gap between food and medicine through AI-powered solutions. Their pivot to a B2B model reveals a shrewd understanding of how to scale impact in healthcare technology.

Key highlights:

Evolution from direct-to-consumer to B2B platform
Integration of AI in personalized nutrition
Shift from ‘sick care’ to preventative health
Building scalable solutions for healthcare organizations

Ready to explore the future of personalized nutrition and how technology is making it more accessible than ever? Tune in to this episode for insights into how Suggestic is revolutionizing the way we think about food and health.

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Feeding Health Equity: How EntreVita Is Using AI to Bring Personalized Nutrition to the People Who Need It Most

June 9, 2025Business, Food as Medicine Moonshot, Health, Innovation, StartupsCardiometabolic Health, Cory Mitchell, diabetes, EntreVita, Food as Medicine, health equity, Health Moonshot, Health Transformer, Health Transformers, Nutrition, Type 2 Diabetes, Unity StoakesNicole Kinsey

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From Personal Tragedy to Transformation: Cory Mitchell’s Food as Medicine Mission with EntreVita

In this powerful episode of StartUp Health NOW, Unity Stoakes sits down with Cory Mitchell, D.Bioethics, CEO & Founder of EntreVita and a founding member of StartUp Health’s Food as Medicine Health Moonshot Community. Cory shares a deeply personal and inspiring journey — from growing up in poverty, losing family to diet-related illnesses, and serving in the Navy, to becoming a public health researcher and now a visionary entrepreneur tackling cardiometabolic diseases and food insecurity with tech-driven precision.

Hear how Cory’s lived experience and research background led to the creation of EntreVita, a platform combining AI with real-time meal recommendations to help patients manage chronic conditions like Type 2 diabetes.

Learn how Cory is thinking beyond software — envisioning a future with robotic kiosks delivering personalized, healthy meals directly in food deserts, gas stations, and eventually even outer space.

Key Takeaways:

Cory’s transformative personal and professional journey
Why EntreVita blends AI + real-time nutrition guidance
The systemic barriers to healthy food access — and how to solve them
The role of mission-driven community and the power of the Food as Medicine movement

This episode is a masterclass in resilience, innovation, and reimagining health equity through food. Don’t miss it.

Are you ready to tell YOUR story? Members of our Health Moonshot Communities are leading startups with breakthrough technology-driven solutions for the world’s biggest health challenges. Exposure in StartUp Health Media to our global audience of investors and partners – including our podcast, newsletters, magazine, and YouTube channel – is a benefit of our Health Moonshot Community Membership. To schedule a call and see if you qualify to join and increase brand awareness through our multi-media storytelling efforts, submit our three-minute application. If you’re mission-driven, collaborative, and ready to contribute as much as you gain, you might be the perfect fit.
» Learn more and apply today.

Want more content like this? Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

Food as Medicine: Expanding Access and Impact with Epicured’s Rich Bennett

April 17, 2025Business, Food as Medicine Moonshot, Health, Innovation, StartupsEpicured, Food as Medicine, Health Moonshot, Health Moonshot Communities, health moonshot community, Health Transformer, Health Transformers, Logan Plaster, Nutrition, Rich Bennett, Richard BennettNicole Kinsey

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The phrase “Food as Medicine” has moved beyond buzzwords to become a powerful force in health tech and digital health. From dedicated pavilions at major conferences like HLTH to a growing understanding of its profound impact to StartUp Health’s newly-launched Food as Medicine Health Moonshot Community, the concept is clear: what we eat plays a crucial role in preventing and managing chronic diseases – often more so than medication alone. Nutrition is not just about sustenance or weight management; it’s a vital tool in fighting disease and fostering overall wellbeing.

Beyond its direct health benefits, treating food as medicine offers a unique advantage: it connects us. Sharing meals builds community and belonging, essential elements for human health and thriving that a pill simply cannot replicate.

In this episode, we speak with Rich Bennett, CEO & Co-founder of Epicured, a true standard-bearer in the Food as Medicine movement. Epicured delivers medically-tailored meals directly to individuals’ homes, offering personalized nutrition plans designed by a team of expert nutritionists and Michelin-starred chefs, catering to a range of health conditions.

We delve into Epicured’s exciting recent developments, including their groundbreaking partnership with Medicaid in New York State. This significant move expands access to their life-changing service to a wider population, particularly those who may not have had the means to benefit previously.

Bennett also shares his insights on joining as a founding member of StartUp Health’s Food as Medicine Health Moonshot Community, highlighting the collaborative efforts driving innovation and growth in this vital field.

Epicured is one of the exciting growth stories in digital health today, and they are at a fascinating inflection point. Join us as Bennett discusses their recent successful fundraise and their ambitious plans to scale up production at their “healing food” facilities. This is a pivotal moment for Epicured and the entire Food as Medicine movement. Tune in to hear how they are revolutionizing healthcare, one delicious and nutritious meal at a time.

Are you ready to tell YOUR story? Members of our Health Moonshot Communities are leading startups with breakthrough technology-driven solutions for the world’s biggest health challenges. Exposure in StartUp Health Media to our global audience of investors and partners – including our podcast, newsletters, magazine, and YouTube channel – is a benefit of our Health Moonshot Community Membership. To schedule a call and see if you qualify to join and increase brand awareness through our multi-media storytelling efforts, submit our three-minute application. If you’re mission-driven, collaborative, and ready to contribute as much as you gain, you might be the perfect fit.
» Learn more and apply today.

Want more content like this? Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

Edamam CEO: Why Food as Medicine Has Hit a Market Tipping Point & Opportunities in the Space

January 31, 2025Business, Food as Medicine Moonshot, Health, Innovation, StartupsEdamam, Food as Medicine, Health Moonshot, Health Moonshot Communities, Logan Plaster, Nutrition, Victor PenevNicole Kinsey

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This idea called “food as medicine” isn’t new. People have been talking for decades about how the foods we put in our body play a bigger role in preventative health and disease management than any drug or medication we could.

But it’s always been on the fringe. Partly because it’s difficult to do the studies that clinically prove that foods can be as effective as medications. And second, which is related, there hasn’t been much funding for this kind of work.

So, what’s changed? To answer that question, we sat down with Victor Penev, CEO & Founder of Edamam, a longtime member of the StartUp Health Community. Victor’s created what may be the world’s largest repository of food data. But he’s also a futurist with a keen eye on where the industry is heading.

In our conversation Penev explains how the uptake in GLP-1s and generative AI have come together in a fascinating way that opens up new opportunities in nutrition. Importantly, it may open up new funding sources and innovative business models.

On that note: StartUp Health has formally kicked off our Food as Medicine Health Moonshot Community, so if you or someone you know is a founder working in nutrition, someone with a passion to use food to make the world a healthier place, we’re accepting applications at StartUpHealth.com.

Are you ready to tell YOUR story? Members of our Health Moonshot Communities are leading startups with breakthrough technology-driven solutions for the world’s biggest health challenges. Exposure in StartUp Health Media to our global audience of investors and partners – including our podcast, newsletters, magazine, and YouTube channel – is a benefit of our Health Moonshot Community Showcase Membership. To schedule a call and see if you qualify to join and increase brand awareness through our multi-media storytelling efforts, submit our three-minute application. If you’re mission-driven, collaborative, and ready to contribute as much as you gain, you might be the perfect fit. Learn more and apply today.

Want more content like this? Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

Food as Medicine: The Next Wave of Tech-Enabled Nutrition

November 16, 2023Business, Food as Medicine Moonshot, Health, Innovation, StartupsEdamam, Food as Medicine, Health Moonshot, Health Moonshots, Health Transformer, Health Transformers, Logan Plaster, Nutrition, Nutrition & Fitness, Nutrition and Fitness, Shireen Abdullah, Victor Penev, YumlishNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (32.2MB)

At StartUp Health we’re all about what’s new and what’s next in health, and that often means talking about cutting-edge technology. But sometimes the most radical way to improve is also the simplest. One example? Our food.

This week, as we head into Thanksgiving in the United States, we’re talking about the role food plays in managing not just our weight and fitness, but actual chronic diseases. Some people use the term ‘Food as Medicine,’ and the more research we do, the more ways we find that tuning our nutrition can sometimes be superior to taking more pharmaceuticals.

While the idea of seeing food as a legitimate healthcare tool isn’t new, per se, there are some exciting new tools and platforms that leverage nutritional information and make it more accessible to the world. And that’s what we’re going to talk about on this episode.

Our first guest is Shireen Abdullah, CEO & Founder at Yumlish, who joined the StartUp Health community in 2019. Shireen’s platform puts a virtual nutritionist in your pocket, with a strong emphasis on boosting health literacy. She’s also worked very closely with the Air Force on workforce readiness. Turns out there are so many young people who are overweight and inactive that it’s hindering military recruitment and becoming a national security threat.

After Shireen we’ll hear from Victor Penev, CEO & Founder of Edamam, a Health Transformer since all the way back in 2013. Victor has made the world’s food knowledge more searchable through Edamam’s API so that users of platforms like NOOM and Virta Health can get personalized meal recommendations. We’ll also hear about their brand new integration with Open AI that brings a ChatGPT experience to the process of finding personalized meal plans.

Enjoy the episode!

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