The first national perception survey on food is M

Researchers have carried out the first national survey on public awareness and to perceive food, health and food, are medical programs. A team from the Food Medicine Institute at Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University showed that almost 90 percent of the Americans surveyed agreed that nutrition of healthy food is important for preventing conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

The results published on March 12th in the magazine Health mattersAlthough under 30% have heard of the food movement, more than half would try a produced recipe, a medically tailored grocery store or a medically medically tailor -made meal program if they are offered through their health service providers. The interest in participating in almost 70%increases with food and nutritional uncertainty.

In addition, more than two thirds of the respondents were of the opinion that government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid were supposed to cover food, while about half of the participants stated that private insurance should also pay. The 24-question survey was completed by over 3,000 adults from February to April 2023 and represented US demography in relation to gender, breed, insurance coverage, household income, education and health.

“This study confirms that the public understands the importance of food for your health, but you do not always have a means of accessing the food you want,” said the first author Ronit Ridberg, a professor of scientific assistant to Friedman School. “Only a quarter of the respondents reported that their basic supplier asked whether they had enough food for eating, and less than half discussions about nutrition during their clinical encounters.”

The joint experiences, which are reflected in the surveys, are probably due to the fact that the health service providers have received no nutritional education during their training and are burdened for the time to go through many topics in one appointment, said Ridberg. In her conversations with doctors and nurses, she heard that you can feel uncomfortable to ask about food and nutritional uncertainty, and often do not know the right resources to give patients.

Based on the survey, about half of the Americans would make positive dietary changes if they had regular discussions about their habits with nurses. Over 80% of those surveyed agreed that they would take measures to eat healthier if they knew that they would help them feel better, treat a state of health or reduce their risk of future diseases. However, many people are faced with financial obstacles, and 83% of the respondents reported the costs for healthy food as the most common barrier for consumption, and over 50% of the view that health care should help to reimburse healthy foods or to enable a few healthy foods.

According to the costs, the most common hurdles for healthy eating family traditions that focused on unhealthy food (79%) were a lack of healthy options where people shop (57%), shops or food chambers who sell healthy foods are too far away (56%) and not to know which food is considered healthy (48%).

“There is a misunderstanding that many people do not want to eat nutritious foods or that they prefer unhealthy products – but show our new results that most Americans want to eat better, but face specific obstacles and challenges,” said Dariush Mozaffarin, senior author of the newspaper and director of the Food is Medicine Institute of the Friedman School. “Our research shows that in the context of health care it is in demand that therapies on foods are based on food and provides valuable information for state and federal political decision -makers in order to increase a more holistic, cost -effective supply.”

On the 2nd day for the Advocacy Advocacy in Capitol Hill for food and Senate guides, the researchers take part in the strengthening of the infrastructure for food with medical programs. This could be, for example, the increasing training training for doctors, the support of the latest research on food, medicine at the National Institutes of Health and the expansion of programs and the reporting by Medicare, Medicaid and the US veteran department.

The research reported in this article was supported by the Emperor Permanente East Bay Community Fund and included authors from Harvard University alongside authors of the Friedman School. You can find complete information on authors, methodology, restrictions and conflicts of interest in the published paper.

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