A Red Wing clinic fills prescriptions for free vegetables

Patients at the CARE Clinic in Red Wing can leave with a bag of fresh vegetables, not only a suggestion to eat better, MPR News reported. The clinic's Fresh Food Farmacy, also called VeggieRx, gives participants free produce each week. An analysis done with doctors from Mayo Clinic Health System found that patients with diabetes who used the program lowered their A1C, a blood test that tracks sugar over time.

The practical step is the produce itself. A clinician can name the food. The farmacy puts that food in a bag. The A1C result is about people with diabetes who kept using the program. It is not a promise that every patient will see the same change, and it does not replace the rest of their care.