Healthy Meals Supreme Literature Reviews Show Prescribing Medically-Tailored Meals Enhances Patient Health Outcomes and Saves the Healthcare System Billions

PRINCETON, New Jersey, June 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Three systematic literature reviews sponsored by Healthy Meals Supreme and conducted by the Cedarville University School of Pharmacy, showed that the availability of medically-tailored meals had three major results:

• Improved Diabetes, Chronic Kidney Disease, Heart and Dementia patient compliance with recommended dietary guidelines
• Significantly better patient health outcomes and
• Potential savings to the healthcare system of billions of dollars

In each systematic review multiple databases were searched, including Medline/PubMed, for food provision studies between January 1, 2013 and May 1, 2018. The reviews were led by Dr. Aleda Chen, study investigator and Assistant Dean, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Cedarville University.

"The results of all three systematic reviews showed that when medically-tailored meals were provided to patients with chronic conditions, compliance soared to around 90% on average as did patient satisfaction. This compliance led to significant measurable improvement in patient health outcomes as well as a decrease in hospital and medical costs.  It therefore makes great sense that prescribing food as medicine and making it available for patients to take this 'medicine' via delicious, ready-to-eat meals that patients can consume and enjoy, could have tremendous long term benefits for both patients and the healthcare system," said Healthy Meals Supreme founder Joe Martinez, RPh, PDE, CMS, who presented the respective posters at three prestigious scientific meetings.  

Study highlights and the scientific meetings where the results were first presented follow below.

1. A Systematic Review of Diabetes-Related Outcomes in Food Provision Studies was presented at The 2019 American Diabetes Association meeting on June 9, 2019.

Notation: In 2017, US diabetes direct and productivity-related costs were $327 billion and accounted for 4 million deaths, potentially avoidable by adhering to dietary guidelines.

Study highlights include:

• 33 peer-reviewed studies reviewed relating to low caloric/carbohydrate intake or specific nutrients.
• Patient satisfaction was as high as 93%.
• A1c was significantly reduced by 0.9-1.5% (p<0.05) within weeks to months.
• The body mass index showed a reduction of 2.3-5.4 kg/m²
• Conclusion: Providing guideline-based culinary medicine prescriptions for medically tailored, goal-based meals may lead to a significant savings for hospitals due to reduced hospitalizations and direct costs.

2. Clinical and Economic Outcomes of Food Provision Studies for Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease: A Systematic Review was presented at The 2019 National Kidney Foundation meeting on May 9, 2019.

Notation: Approximately 14% of Americans have chronic kidney disease and face higher mortality rates and increased medical costs. With adherence rates as low as 20%, patients are struggling with dietary changes that could help to slow disease progression and prevent dialysis.

Study highlights include:

• The 7 studies (717 patients) reviewed mainly focused on the protein content of meals.
• Patient compliance ranged from 81% to 90%.
• Patients provided with a low-protein diet had significantly lower mortality rates (RR:0.44 (0.3-0.54)), with 50% and 25% of patients GFR<_15mL/min being dialysis-fee for at least 2 and 5 years respectively.
• There was a notable decrease in inflammatory markers and urine phosphorus as well as increases in insulin–like growth factor 1 and improvements in creatinine clearance.
• Conclusion: Providing medically-tailored meals for CKD patients, who cost more than $50 billion annually for Medicare, will likely result in substantial cost savings to the US healthcare system.

3. A Systematic Review of the clinical and economic outcomes associated with guideline-recommended food provision studies was presented at The 2019 American Society for Nutrition meeting on June 9, 2019.

Notation: Food provision studies in this review included patients with heart disease, dementia and chronic kidney disease.

Study highlights include:

• 99 peer-reviewed articles covering 14,205 patients.
• Dietary adherence was around 90%.
• There was a significant 5-10% LDL reduction (p<0.05).
• Systolic Blood pressure significantly decreased by 4-11mmHG (p<0.05).
• Lower CKD mortality rates and increased dialysis-free time (2 years).
• Conclusion: The US healthcare system may realize an annual $27-48 billion reduction in costs via better control of chronic disease by providing meal therapy management.

Note: a fourth poster titled The Impact of Food Provision Studies on Alzheimer's Disease: A Systematic review will be presented by Joe Martinez at The 2019 Alzheimer's Association International Conference (7/16, 9:30 am - 4:15 pm).

To receive a copy of the posters noted above please contact [email protected]

About Healthy Meals Supreme

Healthy Meals Supreme is the first national, customized, culinary medicine inspired, freshly prepared, delicious, ready-to-eat, home delivery meal service. The goal of the company is to help people take back control of their health by better managing A1c levels, blood pressure and weight loss.  This is done by providing specially designed "food is medicine" meal plans.

Though Healthy Meals Supreme is a subscription-based meal service and a subscription is required for pre-orders, a subscription is not required to view the menus or order the current week's menu.

The company was founded by culinary medicine specialist, registered pharmacist, diabetes educator and company president Joe Martinez, RPh, PDE, CMS. World respected endocrinologist Dr. Irl Hirsch is the chairman of the company's scientific advisory board. WACS Global Master Chef, culinary medicine expert and Johnson & Wales University Dean Emeritus Karl Guggenmos is the company's senior culinary advisor.

Social media:

Twitter: @HMSChefs

Facebook and Instagram: @healthymealssupreme

LinkedIn: Healthy Meals Supreme

For more information or to speak with Joe Martinez or Dr. Chen about the studies, please contact: Marjie Hadad, General Manager, Must Have Communications & Consulting at [email protected] or at 609-212-1953.

SOURCE Healthy Meals Supreme

Related Links

http://www.healthymealssupreme.com/