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6/4/2014 xStarTribune Anew prescription: Eat your \eggies I Star Tribune A new prescription: Eat your veggies Article by: Jeremy Olson Star Tribune May 12, 2014 - 9:32 AM One of Minnesota's largest health care providers is going to a new extreme in its struggle to combat the epidemic of childhood obesity. It's started writing prescriptions for vegetables. For now, it's just a pilot project at HealthPartners clinics in Hugo and White Bear Lake. But if the experiment succeeds, the Bloomington -based health organization could expand the project across the Twin Cities to address the high — and rising — rate of childhood obesity. Nearly a quarter of the state's ninth -graders are overweight or obese, according to last year's Minnesota Student Survey — a trend mirrored in skyrocketing youth obesity rates nationwide. "What we're doing hasn't been working," said Dr. Thomas Kottke, HealthPartners' medical director for population health. "Obesity in kids has taken off in the last 20-25 years. And so we need to do something differently." Emily Miller was a skeptic. The Forest Lake mom tried cutting junk food and putting out healthier snacks with the only results being whining children and rotting fruit. But after her 12- and 10 -year-old daughters got their veggie prescriptions at checkups earlier this year, they demanded to go straight to the grocery store. "I didn't realize how much it would spark an interest in my girls," Miller said. Participating doctors issue the prescriptions to children ages 5 to 12 who could use healthier diets and encourage them to make their own choices and try something new; area supermarkets accept the prescriptions and track the varieties of produce purchased. The prescriptions are actually just vouchers funded by HealthPartners, rather than formal scripts billed to health insurance companies. But the idea is to make them look official so they send the message to children that good eating is good health care. In this file photo, tw o boys eat w atermelon during a summer camp for overweight children. Feed Loader, How it w orks: Participating doctors issue the "prescriptions" to kids ages 5 to 12 w ho could use healthier diets. Area markets accept the prescriptions and track purchases. Feed Loader, While braced for critics, who might object to "medical izing" diet and using health care dollars for family food budgets, health system officials think it's a sound investment. "It could save us a huge amount of money down the road in our cholesterol-lowering drugs, in our heart -saving procedures," assuming that healthy children grow into healthy adults, said Dr. Elsa Keeler, a pediatrician at the White Bear Lake clinic. http://wuwv.startribune.conVlifestyie/health/258776831.html 1/3