Dear Editor:
We read with interest the article “Healthy Food Prescription Programs and Their Impact on Dietary Behavior and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” by Bhat et al. (1), published in Advances in Nutrition. The authors conducted a systematic review of healthy food prescription programs and evaluated their impact on dietary behavior and cardiometabolic parameters by meta-analysis. They performed a systematic search of interventional studies investigating the effect of healthy food prescription on diet quality and/or cardiometabolic risk factors, including BMI, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and blood lipids. They reported that healthy food prescription programs might be beneficial in increasing consumption of fruit and vegetables and modestly reduce BMI and HbA1c. They mentioned that the results of the study supported the need for well-designed, large, randomized controlled trials in various settings to further establish the efficacy of healthy food prescription programs on diet quality and cardiometabolic health.
Due to wide participation with 27,000 individuals from 52 countries in the INTERHEART (2) study, 9 risk factors, including abnormal lipids, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, abdominal obesity, psychosocial stress, lack of consumption of fruit and vegetables, lack of moderate alcohol consumption, and lack of physical activity, were identified, accounting for 90% of the population-attributable risk of myocardial infarction in men and 94% in women (3). Although the authors correlated 4 main risk factors with dietary behavior with a limited number, some of the risk factors not mentioned, such as smoking and alcohol consumption, which were related to irregular food intake and higher cravings for high fat and fast-food fats (4–6), were not evaluated. These risk factors should be considered in the assessment of cardiometabolic risk patterns. Therefore, we believe that knowledge of these aspects in relation to the patient population would be valuable and beneficial to the readers.
Notes
Author disclosures: The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Contributor Information
Ali Kağan Coskun, From the Department of General Surgery, Gulhane School of Medicine, University of Health Sciences, Ankara, Turkey.
Bilgehan Savas Oz, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Gulhane School of Medicine, University of Health Sciences, Ankara, Turkey.
References
- 1. Bhat S, Coyle DH, Trieu K, Neal B, Mozaffarian D, Marklund M, Wu JHY. Healthy food prescription programs and their impact on dietary behavior and cardiometabolic risk factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Adv Nutr. 2021;12(5):1944–56. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2. Yusuf S, Hawken S, Ounpuu S, Dans T, Avezum A, Lanas F, McQueen M, Budaj A, Pais P, Varigos Jet al. Effect of potentially modifiable risk factors associated with myocardial infarction in 52 countries (the INTERHEART study): case-control study. Lancet. 2004;364(9438):937–52. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 3. Chatterjee A, Harris SB, Leiter LA, Fitchett DH, Teoh H, Bhattacharyya OK; Cardiometabolic Risk Working Group (Canadian) . Managing cardiometabolic risk in primary care: summary of the 2011 consensus statement. Can Fam Physician. 2012;58(4):389–93., e196–201. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 4. Al Abdi T, Andreou E, Papageorgiou A, Heraclides A, Philippou E. Personality, chrono-nutrition and cardiometabolic health: a narrative review of the evidence. Adv Nutr. 2020;11(5):1201–10. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 5. Chao AM, White MA, Grilo CM, Sinha R. Examining the effects of cigarette smoking on food cravings and intake, depressive symptoms, and stress. Eat Behav. 2017;24:61–5. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 6. Fawehinmi TO, Ilomäki J, Voutilainen S, Kauhanen J. Alcohol consumption and dietary patterns: the Findrink study. PLoS One. 2012;7(6):e38607. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]