Healthy Food Boxes Helped Reduce Weight and Blood Pressure Over Time

Diet and Weight Management News

Delivering bundles of healthy food to people may help them shed pounds and bring down blood pressure, according to a new study.

Researchers reported in the October issue of Preventing Chronic Disease that adults who received plant-based grocery boxes from a Boston-area food pantry ended up healthier overall after several years.

Each package contained enough food for three meals a day for one week and included fresh fruits and vegetables, canned beans, nut butter and whole grains.

“Our results suggest that plant-based food interventions are promising and, in the future, should focus on longer duration for improving cardiovascular and metabolic health,” senior researcher Dr. Lauren Fiechtner said in a news release. She is division chief of pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at Mass General Brigham for Children in Boston.

The study followed 68 adults in a “Food Is Medicine” program run through a Mass General Brigham community health center’s food bank.

On average, participants received 97 plant-based food boxes over a little more than two and a half years. They were offered weekly packages for as long as they wanted them.

Earlier research has shown that giving healthy food to people with illness can help manage conditions such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

But most “Food Is Medicine” studies have looked only at short-term effects, tracking people for weeks or months. This study examined how healthy food packages may influence health over a longer period.

For every 100 food packages a person received, researchers found a 3.2-point drop in diastolic blood pressure, a loss of nearly 6 pounds, and a one-point decrease in body mass index, an estimate of body fat.

The program also lowered systolic blood pressure in patients who already had high blood pressure. Systolic pressure is the top number in a reading and reflects the force in the arteries when the heart beats.

People who requested more packages saw even greater improvements, the researchers said.

“This paper has the potential to change the conversation about 'Food Is Medicine' interventions,” lead researcher Dr. Jacob Mirsky, a primary care physician at Mass General Brigham Revere Community Health Center, said in a news release.

“We are boldly advocating for high potency interventions that focus on frequent, high quality, high quantity food packages over long periods of time so that patients have the greatest chance of benefiting,” Mirsky said.

SOURCE: Mass General Brigham, news release

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