U.S. food system needs fresh ideas on healthy eating, experts say

Innovation across the food system – from farms to grocery stores to restaurants and beyond – is urgently needed to help Americans eat better, a science advisory from the 美国心脏协会 says.

And the report, published Monday in the journal 循环，充满了可以提供帮助的方法.

Healthy eating can help reduce the risk of heart attacks, heart failure, strokes and more. As outlined in federal guidelines, diets should emphasize vegetables, fruits and whole grains. 他们还应该包括低脂乳制品, 家禽, 鱼, 豆类, non-tropical vegetable oils and nuts; and limit sweets, 含糖饮料和红肉.

但这不是大多数美国人的饮食方式.

"In a healthy food system, the healthy choice would be the default choice," Cheryl A.M. Anderson, chair of the advisory's writing group, said in a 线上电子游戏飞禽走兽发布会上.

帮助人们做出健康的选择, fresh approaches are needed from "the food industry, 农业产业, 公共卫生和医学, 政策, 在社区之间, 这次改革, 学校和家庭,安德森说, a professor at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

The advisory's authors said their work identified evidence that innovations at the community level can favorably alter eating behaviors. 例如, some food pantries have seen potential in labeling foods with traffic light-style labels to indicate healthier items, and schools were able to get students to drink more water by making it more easily available.

But the private sector also must change its approach, the advisory said.

食品工业, 例如, could voluntarily formulate new food products that are lower in calories or packaged as smaller serving sizes, 安德森说. The nutritional value of manufactured foods could be improved, and healthier foods could be placed more prominently on grocery store shelves.

"We need improvements in food production and distribution so that consumers have a wide variety of healthy foods readily available,安德森说. "There is a need for immediate action to promote, fund and evaluate healthful changes to the food system. Innovation at multiple levels is necessary to see improvements in the public's health."