Dariush Mozaffarian

At a glance

• Dariush Mozaffarian is a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University in Boston. He is a former dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and has authored more than 650 scientific publications.
• He is one of the best-known voices behind 'Food is Medicine': making healthy food part of healthcare, for example through produce prescriptions or meals for patients.
• His research focuses on diet quality and cardiovascular disease: in his view, what you eat matters more than the number of calories.
• In 2021 his team published the Food Compass in Nature Food, a 1 to 100 score that rates foods on 54 attributes.
• What the science says: other researchers (Journal of Nutrition, 2023) found that the Food Compass rates some ultra-processed products too favourably and animal foods too harshly. A viral chart claiming 'cereal is healthier than steak' did not come from Tufts itself, Reuters found.
• For food programmes within healthcare, early results are promising, but large controlled trials with hard clinical outcomes are still limited.
• What you can do with it: focus on the quality of your food, with plenty of vegetables, fruit, nuts, legumes, fish and whole grains, and as little ultra-processed food as possible.