Telenutrition and Patient-Driven Digital Health with Emily Brown from Free From Market

Free From Market is on a mission to assist consumers with affordable, inclusive access to healthy food, as well as critical data and resources to further drive positive health outcomes.

We kick off the conversation by delving into a piece that says many UK households are now skipping meals due to the rising cost of living. Emily acknowledges that food insecurity has always been a challenge, but that “it is at a critical point right now with inflation, particularly with food prices continuing to escalate.” Emily adds, “It’s particularly concerning when access to the right food is critical to wellbeing.”

Responding to the next topic we look at — people opting for junk food because they are struggling to purchase healthier options due to the price difference — Emily emphasizes the importance of policy change in achieving sustainable outcomes. Speaking on this, Emily says, “In the United States, the conditions where certain communities lack access to healthy food were intentional. We have a history of a policy called redlining, which is where banks denied loans to businesses in areas that were traditionally low income or where there was a population of black and brown people.”

Our conversation shifts to the inspiration behind Free From Market and the work the organization is doing. “The work [I do] at Free From Market is deeply personal.” Emily is motivated to bring about systems change and make healthy food accessible at scale as a result of her lived experience with limited access to the right food. Free From Market is creating a new market for consumers who have always wanted access to natural and healthy foods, but have been unable to do so due to a lack of purchasing power, infrastructure, as well as awareness and education.

As the episode continues, we explore what Emily has learned in the policy landscape, the one policy she would change given the opportunity, and the importance of funding founders who have firsthand experience with the problems they are attempting to solve. We conclude with a lightning round in which Emily answers some fun, thought-provoking questions, including the tech product that has been a game changer in her life and her predictions for the tech space.

To find out more about Emily and her work at Free From Market, check out: