A new Food-PRICE study partly funded by NHLBI examined the health effects and cost-effectiveness of three policy interventions to incentivize healthier eating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which help low-wage working families, low-income seniors, and people with disabilities to purchase food.
Poor eating is a major cause of illness, especially from cardiometabolic conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. These diet-related diseases, and their related costs, disproportionately affect low-income families in the United States.
The researchers’ model estimates that a 30 percent incentive on fruit and vegetable purchases would avert almost 12,000 cardiovascular deaths over the next 20 years. If such incentive is combined with a restriction on purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages, or with a restriction on a broad swath of unhealthy foods, even more cardiovascular deaths (40,420 and 48,088, respectively) could be prevented. Substantial cost savings are anticipated by this model.
The findings were published in the journal PLOS Medicine.