Food as Health: Nutrition investment opportunities for preventive care

Amid growing US health care costs and diet-driven non-communicable diseases, S2G Investments calls for a convergence of food and health care systems: Food as Health. The US-based investor argues this would enable entrepreneurs to build investable businesses that leverage nutrition to drive measurable health outcomes. 

However, adoption remains limited when considering the magnitude of the problem. Nutrition Insight meets with Dan Ripma, principal at S2G Investments, to discuss Food as Health investment opportunities. 

“Food as Health is emerging as a systemic force that bridges the historic divide between an industrial food system optimized for low-cost calories and a health care sector designed for downstream treatment,” he details.

“This shift is propelled by the recognition that poor nutrition is now the leading driver of preventable disease and a primary contributor to unsustainable health care spending. We are moving toward a model where nutrition is a foundational component of prevention and treatment integrated directly into clinical workflows.”

Ripma highlights several market signals that this inflection point has arrived, such as the rapid adoption of GLP-1 therapies. He says this highlights the scale of metabolic dysfunction and the rise of value-based care models that financially reward upstream prevention.

Moreover, S2G Investments points to a “maturing policy landscape.” For example, Ripma highlights the Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions and the Make America Healthy Again: Enhancing Lifestyle and Evaluating Value-based Approaches Through Evidence models that prioritize integrating preventive lifestyle interventions into clinical practice.

“However, continued progress is essential to ensure that therapeutic food and nutrition interventions are fully recognized and included within these frameworks.”

The growing Food is Medicine movement in the US also highlights the importance of bridging food and health care sectors. This concept underscores the positive economic and health impact of leveraging food-based nutrition interventions such as medically tailored meals and produce prescription programs. 

Economics of prevention

US health care spending is projected to hit US$8.6 trillion by 2033 — an estimated 20.3% of the country’s GDP that year. S2G Investments suggests that reframing nutrition through a health lens can address these rising costs, as well as deteriorating public health and mounting environmental pressure.

S2G Investments suggests that reframing nutrition through a health lens can address health care costs, public health, and environmental pressure.At the same time, Ripma tells us that payers to investors require evidence that programs translate into measurable improvements.

“The most compelling signals include reductions in avoidable hospitalizations and emergency department visits, improvement in chronic disease biomarkers such as HbA1c [blood glucose] levels, blood pressure, and LDL cholesterol, increased medication adherence, and the closure of preventive care gaps.”

He says these outcomes directly influence an investment’s rating, monthly medical cost per member, and performance under value-based contracts.

“The structural challenge is that prevention timelines rarely align with payer economics,” Ripma continues. “Most health plans experience meaningful member churn, which limits their ability to capture the full multi-year return from interventions like nutrition and lifestyle programs. As a result, solutions that rely solely on long-term disease prevention struggle to demonstrate payer return on investment.”

“We believe the companies best positioned to stand out are those that can demonstrate near-term cost offsets, measurable biomarker improvement within six to 12 months, and sustained member engagement that drives quality metric improvement.”

Nutrition and health market segments

Earlier this year, S2G Investments released a report highlighting opportunities in the Food as Health ecosystem. The company notes this ecosystem is entering a scale-up phase, moving from early innovations in consumer wellness to distinct market segments with diverse opportunities for innovators, operators, and investors to build solutions that improve health and create economic value.

The company defines seven segments: Healthy Meals, Functional Ingredients, Supplements and Nutraceuticals, Medical Foods, Food-Driven Care Engagement, Integrated Clinical Nutrition, and Nutrition-Enabled Therapeutics.

Demonstrating near-term cost offsets, measurable biomarker improvement within six to 12 months, and sustained member engagement can help companies stand out.Ripma says there is progress across all seven segments, but they’re at very different stages of maturity. “Healthy Meals and Supplements and Nutraceuticals have already crossed the chasm and are firmly embedded in the mainstream retail landscape with broad consumer adoption.”

He highlights Integrated Clinical Nutrition as the segment most likely to “cross the chasm” — moving from early adopters to gaining adoption by a more mainstream market.

“It sits at the intersection of health care delivery and nutrition, and it aligns directly with the shift toward value-based care. As Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans take on more financial risk, food and nutrition interventions become a rational tool to manage chronic disease and reduce avoidable utilization.”

“The economic alignment matters,” underscores Ripma. “Unlike purely consumer wellness products, Integrated Clinical Nutrition is increasingly tied to reimbursable care pathways and quality incentives. Therefore, adoption is being driven not just by consumer demand, but by structural incentives within the health care system.”

Evidence bar for investment

Ripma notes that the needed evidence for investment varies by segment. For medical foods and nutrition-enabled therapeutics, the standard increasingly approaches or reaches pharmaceutical-grade rigor, he details.

“For example, our portfolio company Sōlaria Biō conducted a one-year randomized controlled trial (RCT) involving several hundred postmenopausal women before commercializing Bōndia.” 

He says S2G Investments found the trial equivalent in rigor to a pharmaceutical trial. “That level of evidence is what earns clinical credibility and creates a viable pathway to reimbursement.”

In general, Ripma notes that robust real-world outcomes data, combined with pilots or evaluations, are often sufficient for early contracts. “However, the evidentiary requirements typically deepen as programs scale and financial exposure increases.”

Although RCTs in GLP-1 users represent the highest evidence standard for investments, strong RCT data in obesity or calorie-restricted populations may be sufficient.“In practice, we evaluate evidence in the context of the intended use and customer. The starting point is not simply whether data exists, but whether it is reproducible, clinically meaningful, and defensible under scrutiny from sophisticated payers and providers.”

GLP-1 complementary products

S2G Investments also highlights several opportunity areas in Food as Health, such as Longevity and Healthspan Nutrition; Women’s Health; Advanced Supplements, Bioactives, and Functional Foods; and GLP-1-Adjacent Nutrition.

Ripma says GLP-1-adjacent metabolic health products are a “transitional category” in the Food as Health ecosystem. He highlights that these products sit between traditional supplements supported by structure or function claims and medical foods to help manage specific diseases under medical supervision.

He explains that GLP-1-adjacent products are often sold through consumer channels but used in a context of pharmacologically induced weight loss. Here, lean mass loss, protein insufficiency, micronutrient gaps, glycemic variability, and gastrointestinal tolerance are predictable physiological consequences that raise the bar for clinical validation.

“The question is not whether an ingredient supports metabolism, but whether it meaningfully addresses a defined metabolic risk associated with GLP-1 therapy,” says Ripma.

In these products, S2G Investments looks for greater formulation precision, defined physiological targets, and human clinical data tied to meaningful endpoints, particularly lean mass preservation, functional outcomes, biomarker changes, or metabolic stability.

“RCTs in GLP-1 users represent the highest standard, but strong RCT data in obesity or calorie-restricted populations may be sufficient depending on positioning,” Ripma explains.

“While these products may not be regulated as medical foods, if they are positioned as clinically supportive, the evidence should approach clinical nutrition standards rather than traditional supplement-grade substantiation.”

Spotlight on early-life nutrition

S2G Investments identifies Early Life Nutrition as another market opportunity, although the frameworks to quantify lifetime value are still evolving.

S2G Investments says investments in maternal, infant, and youth nutrition offer some of the highest long-term return on investment, both clinically and economically.“The biological and clinical evidence is well established, and maternal, infant, and early childhood nutrition have well-documented downstream effects on metabolic health, immune development, cognitive outcomes, and long-term chronic disease risk,” says Ripma.

“What investors and payers are increasingly doing is linking those long-term outcomes to measurable near-term milestones,” he explains. “Early indicators such as reduced neonatal intensive care unit utilization, improved birth outcomes, successful allergy introduction, breastfeeding duration, and early metabolic markers can serve as proxies for improved lifetime health trajectories and downstream cost avoidance.”

According to Ripma, S2G Investments expects this approach to result in early-life nutrition being increasingly viewed as a preventative investment with quantifiable long-term economic impact.

Scaling clinically aligned nutrition

Despite its opportunities for investment, Ripma expects that scaling Food as Health will require financing structures that reflect the category’s hybrid nature, spanning consumer products, health care delivery, and clinical innovation.

“Early stages often require traditional venture capital to fund R&D, clinical validation, and initial go-to-market development.”

“As companies move toward scale, we expect capital structures to diversify,” he notes. “Debt and infrastructure financing can support capital-intensive manufacturing and specialized supply chains, while revenue-based financing or working capital facilities can help fund inventory and logistics as distribution expands.”

At the same time, S2G Investments expects to see more outcomes-aligned models emerge in partnership with payers and providers, where reimbursement contracts or risk-sharing arrangements help underwrite program expansion.

“Companies that combine digital platforms with logistics and clinical coaching are particularly well-positioned, as full-stack models can integrate more easily into payer workflows and capture multiple revenue streams,” Ripma concludes.