Better diets with AHA Heart-Check certifiable foods

March 31th, 2014

People who regularly choose foods that meet the criteria for the American Heart Association Heart-Check Programme (AHA HCP), have diets with a higher nutritional quality,  and a higher intake of healthy food groups and nutrients. At the same time, they have a lower prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease. This was the conclusion of an epidemiological study among 11,296 men and women using data from the NHANES 2007–2010 study.

Those consuming more AHA HCP-certifiable foods had a higher intake of fruit, vegetable, whole-grain, total sugar, fiber, potassium, calcium, and vitamin D. Also, their diet contained less saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, added sugars, alcohol, cholesterol and sodium. Participants with the highest daily energy intake from the AHA HCP-certifiable foods had a lower risk of obesity (26%), elevated waist circumference (29%), and metabolic syndrome (24%) compared to those with the lowest intake.

The AHA HCP is a front of pack labelling programme, designed to help Americans identify heart-healthy food choices on the basis of saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, total fat, whole-grain, sugar, sodium, omega-3 fatty acid, and dietary fiber contents. As are the Choices criteria, the AHA-HCP nutritional guidelines are category specific.

Source: Lichtenstein AH et al. (2014) Food-intake patterns assessed by using front-of-pack labeling program criteria associated with better diet quality and lower cardiometabolic risk. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 99, 454–62.