A fresh study conducted by specialists at the Mass General Brigham hospital system suggests that embracing a “food is medicine” approach has the potential to enhance nutrition security for families and simultaneously lower the body mass index (BMI) of children.
A research team from Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital conducted a study to examine the impact of providing weekly plant-based snacks to families in need of food assistance during the pandemic on children’s weight.
The researchers discovered a correlation between an increase in receiving food packages and a decrease in BMI. The results, published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease, contribute to the growing body of evidence suggesting that offering plant-based foods may serve as an effective approach to preventing childhood obesity in children from food-insecure households.
“It’s important to encourage healthy eating habits during childhood to help prevent co-morbidities associated with obesity later in life, but many families to do not have access to expensive healthy foods, such as produce,” said senior author Lauren Fiechtner, MD, MPH, Director of the Pediatric Nutrition Center at Mass General for Children and Health and Research Advisor at The Greater Boston Food Bank.
“Food pantries like MGH Revere that can provide families with healthy foods are a huge help in making sure that kids have a long, healthy future and have the best cardiovascular and metabolic health possible from a young age,” she added.
In 2020, food insecurity in the United States saw a significant rise of 55%, impacting 42% of households with children. This surge can be attributed to various factors, including the economic repercussions of the pandemic, school closures, and disruptions in food supply chains. As food insecurity escalated, there was a corresponding increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity, with rates climbing from 19.3% to 22.4% between August 2019 and August 2020.
When it comes to families grappling with food insecurity, the difficulty often lies not only in the quantity of food but also in the quality of food available to them.
“Children in families with food insecurity are frequently skipping meals or skipping food for a whole day because their family does not have enough money for food,” said Fiechtner. “One way for parents to stretch a tight food budget and make sure their children are at least eating something is to buy the cheapest foods available, which are often not nutritious and contribute to obesity and other health problems.”
To address the effects of food insecurity during the pandemic on childhood obesity, the MGH Revere Food Pantry took a proactive step by offering families seeking food assistance weekly plant-based food packages. These packages included a variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains, and were tailored to accommodate the size of each family, providing enough food for three meals per day for every household member. From January 1, 2021, to February 1, 2022, a total of 107 children from 93 families benefited from the program, receiving an average of approximately 27 food packages per family throughout the entire study period.
The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Revere Food Pantry, a collaborative effort between MGH and The Greater Boston Food Bank, supplied the food packages. Since its establishment in 2020, the MGH Revere Food Pantry has been dedicated to offering nutritious food and providing nutritional education to families residing in the greater Boston region.
“For dozens of families, the MGH Revere Food Pantry was a literal lifeline during the pandemic by providing free weekly packages of healthy food for the entire household,” said study co-author Jacob Mirsky, MD, MA, DipABLM, Medical Director of the MGH Revere Food Pantry.
The researchers examined BMI during a baseline period prior to receiving food packages and then during a follow-up period using the Mass General Brigham electronic health record. At the start of the study, 57% of children in the study aged 2-18 years had a BMI at or above the 85th percentile. At follow-up, this number was reduced to 49%. The researchers also saw a decrease in BMI with each additional food family package received and estimated that children in households who received 27 weeks or more of packages may have had a BMI decrease of 1.08 kg/m2 or more.
While the study focused specifically on the pandemic, the research suggests that these findings could carry over into strategies to address broader issues of food insecurity in the future.
“There was an immediate value to providing these food packages to support families during the pandemic, but we also enabled families and children to make healthier food choices, which we know is important to introduce when children are young,” said first author Allison Wu, MD MPH, Attending Physician in Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition at Boston Children’s Hospital. Wu is a research collaborator and former research fellow in the Harvard-Wide Pediatric Health Services Research Program. “This kind of support is not only important for their BMI in childhood, but also in informing how they choose foods and influencing what foods their families are preparing for them to promote overall health.”
This research, as well as the MGH Revere food pantry, are part of a larger Mass General Brigham ‘food as medicine’ strategy. In collaboration with the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, Mass General Brigham committed $8.4 million to promote nutrition equity and security, support food as medicine programs to tackle diet-related diseases, and fund food-related programming at local community-based organizations across Massachusetts.
