Posts Tagged “healthy foods”
Providing healthy, medically tailored meals or boxes of fresh produce along with nutrition counseling with a dietitian led to improved quality of life for people with heart failure compared to people who received dietary counseling without healthy food deliveries, according to a preliminary late-breaking science presentation at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2025 in New Orleans.
The meeting, Nov. 7-10, in New Orleans, is a premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements, research and evidence-based clinical practice updates in cardiovascular science.
“People with heart failure can often experience their condition worsening if they are not eating the right kind of food after they go home from the hospital,” said lead study author Ambarish Pandey, M.D., M.S., FAHA, an associate professor of internal medicine in the division of cardiology and geriatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and medical director of the center’s heart failure with preserved ejection fraction program.
“People need nutritious meals that can provide them with the right nutrients for optimal health, including the appropriate calorie intake, the right amount of protein and limited sodium, sugar and fat.”
This randomized trial included 150 adults who were enrolled within two weeks of being discharged from the hospital for acute heart failure.
Researchers assigned participants to one of three groups: one group received medically tailored meals and dietary counseling with a dietitian; the second group received fresh produce boxes and dietary counseling; and the third group received dietary counseling without food delivery.
Participants receiving either meals or produce were also divided into two subgroups. One subgroup only received food if they picked up their medications from the pharmacy and attended their follow-up clinic appointments. The other subgroup received food whether or not they picked up their medications or attended appointments at the clinic. The meals and grocery food delivery programs lasted for 90 days.
The study’s key findings include:
- Participants in both food delivery groups (receiving either medically tailored meals or fresh produce boxes) reported a higher quality of life compared to those who received dietary guidance without food delivery, based on their responses in the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire.
- People in the conditional delivery groups (confirmed prescription pick-up) reported higher quality of life compared to people in the unconditional delivery group (no prescription pick-up required).
- Participants who received boxes of fresh produce and were able to use fresh produce in their own meals reported greater patient satisfaction than people who received prepared meals, based on their responses in the end-of-study survey.
- There were no significant differences in the number of hospital readmissions or emergency department visits between participants in the food delivery groups compared with people who did not receive food deliveries, or between the two groups receiving food. The study found a total of 32 hospital readmissions and emergency department visits for heart failure during the 90-day study, with 18% of participants having one or more readmissions or emergency visits.
- “These findings indicate the potential for healthy foods to affect outcomes and disease progression for people with chronic conditions like heart failure. If we can identify the best strategy for providing access to healthy food, this could be transformative for people with heart failure who are particularly vulnerable after hospitalization,” Pandey said. “I think healthy food can be as powerful as medications for people with chronic conditions like heart failure.”
- Access to healthy food is a social factor that contributes to overall health including cardiovascular disease risk and outcomes. Current evidence indicates that food insecurity, or limited access to enough food, and nutrition insecurity, or limited access to healthy foods, are both associated with more chronic health conditions and worse outcomes.
- According to the American Heart Association’s 2025 Scientific Statement, Systematic Review of “Food Is Medicine” Randomized Controlled Trials for Noncommunicable Disease in U.S., programs that incorporate healthy food and health care for people with or at high risk for chronic disease showed great potential in improving diet quality and food security.
DURHAM, N.C.–Pairwise, a health-focused food and agriculture company, and Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), the nation’s leading nonprofit working to improve the food system, today announced a three-year partnership to support a joint goal of increasing access to healthy, fresh, and affordable food.
For one in six Americans, healthy, fresh food is either too expensive, too far away, or both, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Pairwise is working to change that, through both its support of PHA and its overarching mission to drive change within America’s food system by leveraging CRISPR and other technology to bring tastier, more nutritious, or more convenient produce to market. Pairwise’s first food product, Conscious™ Greens, will launch later this year in both the foodservice and retail channels.
“We are pleased to partner with PHA, whose impactful work aligns so closely with the Pairwise vision of reducing barriers to fruit and vegetable consumption,” said Tom Adams, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Pairwise. “The challenge of ensuring access to healthy food is multifaceted and complex. At Pairwise, we are using technology to reduce barriers to healthy food access. But it is also imperative that we work with other organizations that are tackling key social barriers. PHA is leading the way in innovative solutions to ensuring food equity.”
Pairwise will contribute $75,000 annually to PHA’s Good Food for All program, which provides produce to families facing barriers to accessing affordable, healthy, and sustainable food. The program works with local partners to empower long-term changes in healthy eating behaviors in communities across the country.
Pairwise’s contribution will provide 630,000 servings of healthy fruits and vegetables through the PHA’s Good Food for All program and will support PHA’s commitment made at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to deliver 100 million servings of produce by 2025.
“Every day, too many families around the country struggle to access healthy food. This entrenched problem must be addressed so that good food is available to everyone, no matter their zip code. We are taking the steps to solve it by working with Pairwise to make healthy food accessible for families in-need,” said Noreen Springstead, President & CEO of Partnership for a Healthier America.
PHA and Pairwise’s shared goal of creating greater, sustained access to nutritious food will require innovative thinking and new solutions. Both organizations are focused on finding innovative solutions to persistent problems facing our current food system.
Pairwise is a leading food and tech company committed to building a healthier world through better fruits and vegetables. The company is based in Durham, N.C., with operations in Arizona and California, all locations where Pairwise expects to deepen its relationship with local PHA partners.
“We look at this partnership as the very beginning of what we hope to be a long-term relationship with PHA,” Adams said. “Our shared vision of ensuring healthy food access to all steers our work each day at Pairwise. As we launch our first products this year and mature as a company, we look forward to continuing to grow our meaningful work with PHA.”
Partnership for a Healthier America launched in 2010 and collaborates with companies across the supply chain to increase access to and affordability of vegetables and fruits and to improve the nutritional quality of food and beverages, resulting in more and healthier options for families.
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention affirms that children who eat healthy foods at school learn better lifelong eating habits and are more prepared to learn. Since most children spend close to six hours a day and consume as much as half of their daily calories at school, parents want to make sure they’re packing the right stuff to keep them in optimal learning mode.
A healthy lunch + healthy snacks = healthy learning. So whether the little one is heading off to school for the first time or one is going off to college, they will need a nutritious lunch, as well as some healthy snacks to fuel their day and stimulate neural activity.
Start with a nutritious lunch. Crispy Fruit Freeze-dried snacks are the perfect complement to any healthy lunch. Parents who will be packing their kids’ lunches should check out the sixth annual Power Your Lunchbox campaign from Produce for Kids. This campaign has been growing exponentially since its inception with more parents making the promise to pack a healthier lunch for their kids
“We are proud to be one of the founding sponsors of this wonderful campaign that promotes packing healthier school lunches, which aligns perfectly with our mission of using food as a force for good,” said Angela Liu, Crispy Green founder and chief executive officer.
Packing along real fruit that snacks like a chip to school or any other extra-curricular activity will make it easy for the kids to stay away from other, less healthy snacks.
Among the healthy foods that were considered to be trendy in 214 was kale, according to some nutrition experts. So what is expected to take center stage in 2015?
Nutritionist see increasing attention towards antioxidizing vegetables and protein-rich grains.
Surprisingly, one of the new foods in the limelight is cauliflower. Registered dietitian Alison Sacks sees cauliflower will stealing some of the spotlight from kale. Her focus is helping clients prevent and heal chronic conditions. She notes cauliflower is nutritious and very versatile.
In 2015, expect to see cauliflower grated to make a flour substitute in pizza crust, mashed (instead of mashed potatoes) and roasted.
“It’s the new, healthy ‘white food,’ ” says Sacks, referring to the trend of avoiding white foods — meaning refined carbs such as white-flour pasta and bread — because of their high sugar and gluten levels and low fiber content.
Another dietitian Sarah Waybright says Brussels sprouts — with high levels of fiber, iron and vitamins K and C — are also a looking good for 2015. Instead of steaming broccoli, she suggests roasting it instead.
Waybright also suggests using some olive oil or other fat – maybe a flavorful, anchovy-based sauce – to give them a crispier surface. Fat doesn’t just create better texture and flavor, she says, it also helps the body better absorb plant-based vitamins and other nutrients. Furthermore, it helps create a feeling of fullness that is hard to come by with veggies only.
By The Alliance for Food and Farming
Study after study continues to confirm the benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables. Recently, a new study was released from the Harvard School of Public Health where researchers found an association between eating at least two servings of fruit a week and having a 23 percent lower risk of Type 2 diabetes. Blueberries, grapes and apples seemed to be especially linked with the reduced diabetes risk. Prunes, apricots, peaches, raisins, bananas, oranges, strawberries and grapefruit were also included in the study.
This is more good news for consumers since the fruits included in the research are popular, plentiful and often kids’ favorites. It also seems to illustrate the nutritional punch of these healthy foods.
The study findings further support the Alliance for Food and Farming’s message to consumers – choose either organic or conventional fruits and veggies but choose to eat more. Both are safe and eating a diet rich in fruits and veggies is always the right choice for improved health and a longer life.
Consumers in general are eating more healthy foods, including fresh fruits and vegetable. This is a factor in the USA restaurant industry looking forward to a good year in 2013.
Restaurant industry sales are predicted to topexceed $660 billion in 2013. This would be a 3.8 percent increase from 2012, says the annual Restaurant Industry Forecast from the Washington, D.C.-based National Restaurant Association.
This would mark the fourth consecutive year of industry sales increases.
The study sees Americans eating more healthfully when they eat out in 2013.
Over 70 percent of people polled claim they are attempting to eat better at restaurants compared to two years ago. About three-quarters of consumers state healthful menu options are an important factor when choosing a restaurant.
Restaurants are making changes to meet the demand for more healthy meals. Around 86 percent of those polled stated eating establishment are offering a wider variety now than two years ago.
2013 is expected to be the 14th straight year in which restaurant industry employment outpaces overall USA employment, the forecast reads.
Restaurants are forecast to employ 13.1 million people in 2013, making the industry the nation’s second-largest private-sector employer.
In 2012, restaurants added jobs at a rate of three percent more than double the overall USA employment rate of 1.4 percent. In 2013, restaurants expected to add jobs at a 2.4 percent rate, .9 percent more than the expected overall rate.