Addressing poor nutrition to promote heart health: moving upstream.
Current dietary recommendations for cardiovascular disease prevention suggest dietary patterns that promote achieving healthy weight, emphasize vegetables, legumes, fruit, whole grains, fish and nuts, substituting mono-unsaturated fats for saturated fats and restricting dietary sodium to less than 2300 mg/day. However, trends in nutrient intake and food consumption patterns suggest that the need for improvement in the dietary patterns of Canadians is clear. Influencing eating behaviour requires more than addressing nutrition knowledge and perceptions of healthy eating - it requires tackling the context within which individuals make choices. A comprehensive approach to improving nutrition includes traditional downstream strategies such as counselling to improve knowledge and skills; midstream strategies such as using the media to change social norms; and upstream strategies such as creating supportive environments through public policy including regulatory measures. While the evidence base for more upstream strategies continues to grow, key examples of comprehensive approaches to population change provide a call to action.
Raine
Kim D
KD
Center for Health Promotion Studies, School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. kim.raine@ualberta.ca
D000818:Animals; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002170:Canada; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004039:Diet, Sodium-Restricted; D004043:Dietary Fiber; D002523:Edible Grain; D002149:Energy Intake; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005227:Fatty Acids; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005399:Fishes; D005638:Fruit; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D009754:Nuts; D009765:Obesity / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000517:prevention & control; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011634:Public Health; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D014675:Vegetables
D004043:Dietary Fiber; D005227:Fatty Acids