{"id":2943272,"date":"2023-07-13T07:51:50","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T11:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/?p=2943272"},"modified":"2023-07-13T07:52:16","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T11:52:16","slug":"produce-prescription-diabetes-2943272-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/produce-prescription-diabetes-2943272-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Would produce prescriptions cut health care costs?"},"content":{"rendered":"
A produce prescription program for people with diabetes could save billions in health care costs, simulations indicate.<\/p>\n
The modeled implementation of a nationwide produce prescription program\u2014which would provide free or discounted fruits and vegetables to eligible Americans living with diabetes \u2014projected extensive reductions in national rates of cardiovascular disease and associated health care costs.<\/p>\n
The program could save the United States at least $40 billion in medical bills, report the researchers in the Journal of the American Heart Association<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Public health agencies and non-profit organizations have been experimenting with variations of produce prescription programs for almost a decade, with increasing evidence for their effectiveness. Typically, a patient with a diet-related health condition<\/a> can visit a participating health care provider to receive vouchers or electronic cards that they can redeem for free or discounted fruits and vegetables delivered to their home or picked up from a grocery store, farmer’s market, or health care food farmacy.<\/p>\n While produce prescriptions have definable benefits for health\u2014for example, improving blood sugar control, body weight, and blood pressure levels\u2014long-term national effects of this promising strategy, if fully implemented, had not previously been investigated.<\/p>\n “Of the strategies that can improve nutrition and diet-related health outcomes for Americans, evidence continues to build that produce prescriptions are a terrific option,” says senior author Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and professor at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition 糖心视频 and Policy. “These innovative treatments are exciting because they can not only improve health and reduce health care spending, but also reduce disparities by reaching those patients who are most in need.”<\/p>\n Mazaffarian is also launching an initiative<\/a> to focus on advancing Food is Medicine.<\/p>\nBenefits and costs<\/h3>\n