Doctors are prescribing food to children and adults for better heart health, and it’s working, new research suggests

• Prescription food programs help people, including children, eat healthier.
• Fruit and vegetable prescriptions help people manage weight, blood pressure, and more.
• Using food as medicine can help reduce the risk of heart problems, especially for people at risk.

In the near future, a visit to your local clinic to monitor your heart health could lead to a prescription you’ll be able to fill at a local farmer’s market instead of a pharmacy.

Doctors are piloting new programs to help people eat more produce and providing resources to help, particularly for those who otherwise don’t have access to fresh foods.

Provide adults and children at risk a recipe for fruits and vegetables (and the money to buy them) can help them eat healthier, according to the largest study of its kind to date.

It can also significantly reduce risk factors for heart diseasethe leading cause of death in the United States, said researchers at Tufts University and Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.

Dietary prescriptions have helped people lower blood pressure and lose weight

The new research looked at data from nearly 4,000 people, including 1,817 children, from low-income neighborhoods in 12 different states, including California, Texas, Florida, New York and Minnesota. Participants had or were at risk of cardiovascular problems and were provided with nutrition lessons healthy eating habits.

They also received money specifically to purchase fruits and vegetables at grocery stores and farmers’ markets. The amount of money averaged about $63 a month, but varied by location and in some cases was based on the number of people per family, ranging from $15 to $300 (for a large family) a month.

Participants stayed in the programs for an average of six months. In that time, they reported eating more fruits and vegetables: about a quarter cup more a day for children and nearly a cup more a day for adults.

Dietary prescriptions also significantly improved heart health parameters such as blood pressure, blood sugar levels and body mass index, according to the study findings, published Aug. 29 in the journal. Circulation: cardiovascular quality and results.

The heart health benefits were about half the results of common medications, which is significant for a change in diet, lead author Kurt Hager of Chan Medical School told the University of Washington. Washington Post.

“Food as medicine” is a growing trend aimed at reducing healthcare costs and fighting inequality

More research is needed to understand how fruits and vegetables might help and how much you should eat to see results.

Previous evidence from small pilot studies had shown that food prescriptions helped people eat more fruits and vegetables and improved quality of life, but included limited data on specific heart health parameters.

According to the researchers, participants not only experienced improvements in specific health parameters, but also reported improved health and quality of life and decreased food insecurity.

It is not yet clear what role fruit and vegetables played, since other factors such as stress are major contributors to heart health problems.

“We know that food insecurity impacts health through several important pathways, including overall dietary quality, but also through stress and anxiety, mental health, and the trade-offs between paying for food and other basic needs such as housing costs, utilities and medications,” Hager said in a news release.

The study had limitations, such as the lack of a control group to confirm that food prescriptions were directly related to positive results.

However, according to a doctor not involved in the study, this is promising evidence to support further efforts to use nutrition as medicine.

“Poor diet and nutritional insecurity are the leading causes of chronic disease globally,” Dr. Mitchell Elkind, American Heart Association clinical chief scientist and professor at Columbia University, said in a news release. “This analysis of product prescribing programs illustrates the potential of subsidized product prescriptions to increase consumption of nutritious fruits and vegetables, reduce food insecurity, and hopefully improve subjective and objective health measures.