Research
Macro partitioning
Low consumption of nuts/seeds and seafood omega-3 fats imposes the highest per capita cardiometabolic disease costs ($81 and $76 respectively), while high consumption of red meat and polyunsaturated fats imposes the lowest ($3 and $20 respectively).
Increase intake of nuts, seeds, and seafood omega-3s, as these changes offer the greatest potential to reduce cardiometabolic disease costs. Reduce processed meats and sodium, and increase polyunsaturated fats, though their individual impact is smaller.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
The largest annual per capita costs are attributed to low consumption of nuts/seeds ($81; 95% CI $74–$86) and seafood omega-3 fats ($76; 95% CI $70–$83), and the lowest are attributed to high consumption of red meat ($3; 95% CI $2.8–$3.5) and polyunsaturated fats ($20; 95% CI $19–$22).
Why this rating
Based on validated model and meta-analyses, but limited by dietary recall accuracy.
Source
Cardiometabolic disease costs associated with suboptimal diet in the United States: A cost analysis based on a microsimulation model
Thiago Veiga Jardim et al. · PLoS Medicine · 2019
DOI 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002981
unknown · n=1000000Cited 126×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Suboptimal intake of specific dietary factors (nuts/seeds, seafood omega-3, processed meats, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, SSBs, sodium, red meat, polyunsaturated fats) accounts for 18.2% of total cardiometabolic disease costs in the US, totaling $50.4 billion annually.Good
- Individuals with Medicare, dual-eligible insurance, lower education, older age, and male sex bear the highest annual diet-related CMD costs.Good
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