By All Means

Frustrated that pills weren’t making her heart patients feel better, Minneapolis-based cardiologist Dr. Elizabeth Klodas went looking for other answers. She started with a simple question for her patients: “What are you eating?” and was shocked to find more than a decade ago ago that she was often the first medical professional to ask her patients that question. “All of a sudden it dawned on me: we talk about food as medicine, what if we took that concept and interpreted it literally? A dose of food.” She started experimenting with foods naturally high in fiber, antioxidants, plant sterols, omega-3 fatty acids and created a cereal that she shared with patients. They started feeling better. That led to the creation of Step One Foods, an e-commerce snack food brand based in Eden Prairie, Minn. that has seen 40-fold revenue growth since 2017. Of course, Dr. Klodas wanted scientific proof that her food products could improve heart health, so she sponsored a clinical trial at the Mayo Clinic, where she had traine