The US government spends billions of dollars each year on subsidies to farmers, but consuming too much food made from those subsidised farm products can boost people's risk for heart disease, researchers said.
The more people eat of foods made with subsidised commodities, the more likely they are to be obese, have abnormal cholesterol and high blood sugar, according to a report in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Current federal agricultural subsidies help finance the production of corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, sorghum, dairy and livestock, which are often converted into refined grains, high-fat and high-sodium processed foods, and high-calorie juices and soft drinks (sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup), the authors write.
"We know that eating too many of these foods can lead to obesity, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes," said lead author Karen R. Siegel of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
But the subsidies help keep the prices of those products down, making them more affordable.
"Among the justifications for the 1973 U.S. Farm Bill was to assure consumers a plentiful supply of food at reasonable prices," Siegel told Reuters Health by email. "Subsidised food commodities are foods made from federally funded crops to ensure the American population has an adequate supply of food, thus they tend to be non-perishable, or storable, eg, corn, wheat, rice, to reduce the risk of spoiling." The researchers used National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey responses obtained from more than 10,000 adults between 2001 and 2006. Each person reported everything they had eaten in one 24-hour period.
The researchers gave each individual a "subsidy score" based on the percentage of their total calories than had come from subsidised foods.
At the same time, participants had their body mass index, abdominal fat, C-reactive protein (a marker of inflammation), blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels measured.
The study itself can't prove that a diet higher in subsidised foods causes poor health, Siegel said. But foods that are high in fat, sugar and sodium are known to increase the risk for chronic health problems, particularly when paired with other factors such as smoking and inactivity, she added.