NBA All-Star Chris Paul invests in Dallas-based ‘food is medicine’ company

A Dallas-dependent well being foodstuff enterprise just secured its newest, significant-profile trader: National Basketball Affiliation All-Star Chris Paul.

The Phoenix Suns star is the most recent athlete to make investments in Roots Foodstuff Team, which will make and distributes medically tailor-made foods and well being solutions to handle long-term ailments. In June, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kevin Adore invested in the organization.

The company’s “food is medicine” goods can be approved by medical professionals as a protected well being care profit.

Roots Foodstuff Team is in the method of increasing funds to execute on contracts with wellness insurance policy organizations, hospitals and self-insured employer plans. Company founder and main govt officer Robert Jones stated its fundraising spherical is envisioned to shut early following calendar year.

“We are thrilled to have Chris Paul be a part of the Roots Food stuff Team family and crew,” Jones mentioned. “He is a established leader on and off the court and believes in ‘food is medicine’ in his personal lifetime and the mission of Roots Foodstuff Team.”

The business declined to disclose the sum of Paul’s expenditure.

Paul’s desire in Roots Food stuff Team, which Jones described as a “pharmaceutical firm in the type of broccoli,” is unsurprising. The athlete has consistently cited wholesome foodstuff alternatives for his efficiency, and has invested in other foodstuff and beverage corporations that endorse well balanced existence.

“My fascination in investing in Roots Foodstuff Group is to assistance give obtain to wholesome, significant-top quality food goods to underserved communities and men and women with critical health problems who will benefit from healthful food interventions,” Paul explained.

The enterprise, which relocated from California to Dallas in December 2020, owns and operates RfoodX and the Roots Foods Foundation, which serves as its philanthropic arm.

RfoodX presents completely ready-to-try to eat foods that are personalized to healthy diet regime plans for individuals with diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, substantial cholesterol and kidney sickness. The meals are cooked and delivered by the firm and only have to be heated just before being eaten.

Shoppers can also decide on a “farm box” that permits them to cook dinner their individual foods from contemporary substances.

As element of Paul’s investment, Roots Meals Basis introduced it will spouse with the Chris Paul Loved ones Foundation to donate solutions to all those “in require of wholesome, unprocessed meals.” The partnership will perform in numerous places of the nation, which include Phoenix, where Paul performs professionally, and in the basketball player’s house condition of North Carolina.

The “food is medicine” movement isn’t new, but it is attaining traction as the connection concerning food items and prolonged-expression health and fitness is significantly examined. One particular 2018 study in the Journal of the American Professional medical Association claimed the No. 1 result in related with U.S. morbidity and mortality was a poor food plan.

Commencing in 2022, California’s Medicaid software, Medi-Cal, will give and deal with medically personalized foods for its users. In Texas, College of Texas Southwestern clinical students can take culinary drugs classes to not only support broaden their health-related awareness, but to also effect their personal wellbeing.

As information of food stuff-primarily based health and fitness treatment expands, Roots Foodstuff Team options to broaden as effectively. The corporation is seeking at strategic acquisitions that would let it to increase the number of circumstances targeted by its meal ideas, Jones reported.