More Than an Apple a Day: How Food Insecurity Tests the Boundaries of Medicine

Food insecurity affects a substantial proportion of Canadians and is strongly associated with preventable illness and increased healthcare utilization. Its consequences frequently arise in healthcare settings, where physicians must often treat the downstream complications of food insecurity with limited tools to address the root cause. This growing dilemma places strain not only on the healthcare system but also on frontline healthcare workers, contributing to increased moral distress and burnout. Emerging interventions such as food prescription programs may yield meaningful benefits when integrated into clinical care. However, these initiatives are limited in their impact, and they cannot replace policy-level solutions. Physicians, healthcare workers, and trainees all play an important role in supporting food security initiatives through partnership and advocacy, but lasting progress depends on structural action that recognizes food insecurity not as a clinical problem but as a systemic one.