Agricultural policy and societal factors influence patients' ability to follow a healthy diet

Gautam Ramesh; Danielle Belardo; Martha Gulati; Robert J Ostfeld; Erin D Michos

doi:10.1016/j.ajpc.2021.100285

Agricultural policy and societal factors influence patients' ability to follow a healthy diet

Am J Prev Cardiol. 2021 Nov 2:8:100285. doi: 10.1016/j.ajpc.2021.100285. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Authors

Gautam Ramesh¹, Danielle Belardo², Martha Gulati³, Robert J Ostfeld⁴, Erin D Michos⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
² North Coast Cardiology, Newport Beach, CA, USA.
³ Division of Cardiology, University of Arizona, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
⁴ Division of Cardiology, Montefiore Health System, Bronx, NY, USA.
⁵ Division of Cardiology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Abstract

•Cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases are largely preventable, and are propagated by a poor diet.•Poor diet may be due to a lack of supply and access to healthy foods, agricultural subsidies, and marketing.•Improving national dietary intake starts with enhancing dietary guidelines, enacting legislative changes to optimize agricultural subsidies and food advertising, and incentivizing a plant-forward diet.

Keywords: Agricultural policy; Cardiometabolic disease; Food system; Nutrition; Primary prevention; Social determinants of health.