Building a Personal Virtual Nutritionist: Edamam’s Next Big Step in Food as Medicine
StartUp Health community member Victor Penev, CEO & Founder of Edamam, is using AI to accelerate development of a 24/7 “personal virtual nutritionist” that makes healthy eating accessible, personalized, and scalable.
For more than a decade, StartUp Health community member Victor Penev has been on a mission to organize the world’s food knowledge. His vision is both simple and profound: empower everyone to make better food choices that support long, healthy lives.
When he launched Edamam in 2011, “Food as Medicine” was barely a concept, let alone a movement. Few investors or health leaders were talking about nutrition as a core part of clinical care, and even fewer saw food data as infrastructure. Penev did. Since joining StartUp Health in 2013, he has built one of the most comprehensive and accurate food and nutrition databases in the world, now used by companies and innovators across healthcare, insurance, food retail, and wellness.
Today, as the Food as Medicine movement takes hold across the healthcare landscape, Penev’s early conviction is proving prescient.
Four Trends Converging on Food as Medicine
Reflecting on the industry’s evolution, Penev points to a powerful convergence of trends that are accelerating the adoption of food-based care.
Generative AI has unlocked true personalization, making it possible for people to interact naturally with technology that understands their needs and habits. Public and private payers have begun reimbursing for medically tailored meals and groceries, validating food as a reimbursable therapeutic intervention. Consumer awareness has never been higher, fueled by the pandemic, the longevity movement, and the proliferation of wearables and glucose monitors that connect nutrition directly to measurable health outcomes.
And finally, the rise of GLP-1 medications has introduced what Penev calls a “gateway moment” for diet-driven chronic care. These drugs, he explains, are changing behavior because they require companion dietary management. “GLP-1 is forcing the conversation about how food fits into treatment,” he says. “That shift is opening doors across the industry for treating and preventing all chronic illnesses.”
Building a Personal Virtual Nutritionist
The newest milestone in Edamam’s journey is the launch of its AI-powered meal planning agent. This new tool represents the company’s first major step toward creating what Penev calls a personal virtual nutritionist: a digital companion that understands individual preferences, budgets, medications, and goals, and offers real-time, contextual guidance around eating.
The meal planner is conversational and intuitive, designed to act like a dietitian who knows you well, available at any hour of the day or night.
“Our goal is to make this nutritionist affordable and accessible to everyone,” says Penev. “If we can nudge people at the right moment and help them make better daily decisions, we can meaningfully improve lives and longevity.”
The AI meal planner is currently in beta, integrating Edamam’s deep nutrition data with new conversational interfaces. It will soon be available through Edamam’s growing network of partners in wellness programs, healthcare platforms, and retail settings.
Scaling Through Strategic Partnerships
While Edamam’s mission is broad, its business model remains tightly focused. The company operates on a B2B model, licensing its data through APIs and datasets to partners across the health and wellness ecosystem. This approach has fueled rapid growth, with API usage increasing more than a 100 percent year over year, particularly among startups building personalized nutrition tools on top of Edamam’s platform.
“We add the most value to companies that are implementing diet as part of their product offerings,” says Penev. “That includes corporate wellness programs, population health initiatives, chronic condition management platforms, insurers, and grocery retailers focused on personalized health.”
For the first time, Edamam will also introduce a per-user subscription model tied to its AI meal planner, expanding access to its capabilities while maintaining its core focus on powering other innovators.
“The innovators we partner with today will become the big companies of tomorrow,” Penev says. “We want to power all of them with the best food and nutrition data available.”
A Balanced View on the AI Revolution
Penev believes that AI represents one of the most transformative shifts since the dawn of the internet, but he also cautions against hype. “AI is a tool, an incredibly powerful one, but not every problem requires it,” he says. “For us, data remains the foundation. AI is simply a better way to leverage that data to help people.”
He is pragmatic about the current moment. While short-term volatility in healthcare and technology markets could create challenges, he remains optimistic about the long-term trajectory. The convergence of consumer demand, clinical validation, and data-driven personalization points to a lasting transformation.
“You can’t be an entrepreneur without being an optimist,” he adds with a laugh. “But you also need to have a fallback. For us, that’s our data. It’s the foundation we can always build on.”
Toward Accessible, Culturally Rooted Nutrition
Beyond technology and business models, Penev remains deeply focused on accessibility. He acknowledges the structural challenges in food production and distribution that make healthy food less available to lower-income populations, but believes that data and knowledge can help close the gap.
He points to examples from Edamam’s own work with communities where cultural knowledge has faded. “If someone on a tight budget remembers that rice and beans are part of their heritage and cooks that instead of fast food, that’s already a win,” he says. “Knowledge and data can drive that behavior change.”
Ultimately, Penev envisions a world where everyone, regardless of income or background, can access a nutritionist-like guide that helps them eat better and live healthier.
What’s Next: Advancing the Food as Medicine Health Moonshot
As a founding member of the Food as Medicine Health Moonshot Community, Penev continues to embody the spirit of collaborative innovation that defines StartUp Health. His work with Edamam not only advances the science of nutrition data but also helps shape a movement to make healthy eating a standard part of healthcare.
“If we succeed,” he says, “we’ll help billions of people eat better, live longer, and stay healthier, one meal at a time.”
Through partnerships with fellow Health Transformers, payers, and policymakers, Penev is helping to turn the Food as Medicine vision into a global reality.
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Published: Nov 20, 2025
Produced by Nicole Kinsey
