Beyond the Food Systems Summit: Linking Recommendations to Action-The True Cost of Food.

A transformation of food systems is needed to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals specified in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Recognizing the true costs and benefits of food production and consumption can help guide public policy decisions to effectively transform food systems in support of sustainable healthy diets. A new, expanded framework is presented that allows the quantification of costs and benefits in three domains: health, environmental, and social. The implications for policy makers are discussed. Curr Dev Nutr 2023;x:xx.

Dietary supplement use pattern of U.S. adult population in the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Data from the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) suggested that nearly half of U.S. adults aged 20 to 69 reported taking at least one dietary supplement in the past month. Logistic regression showed that the following factors were independently associated with a greater likelihood of supplement use: being female, older, white, having higher level of education, non-SNAP participation, and living in a food-secure household. To compare nutrient intakes between supplement users and non-supplement users, daily intakes of eight nutrients were examined. When considering nutrients from food, supplement users tended to consume greater amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, folic acid, calcium, and iron; meanwhile there was no association between supplement use and daily intakes of vitamin B12 and zinc from food sources only. Including nutrients from daily supplement use, supplement users consumed greater amounts of all eight nutrients.

Cost implications of alternative sources of (n-3) fatty acid consumption in the United States.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 provides authoritative advice on what Americans should eat to stay healthy. These guidelines provide a quantitative recommendation to consume 250 mg/d of (n-3) fatty acids (also known as omega-3 fatty acids). To achieve this goal, Americans would need to more than triple the amount of EPA and DHA currently consumed. This paper assessed the cost implications of increased levels of EPA and DHA from marine and nonmarine food sources using data from the 2007-2008 NHANES, USDA nutrient data base, and the USDA Center for the Nutrition Policy and Promotion food price data. Stearidonic acid (SDA)-enhanced soybean oil is a lower cost alternative to commonly consumed marine food as a source of EPA. In addition, given that SDA-enhanced soybean oil is intended to be used as an ingredient in a variety of products, this may enable consumers to increase consumption of EPA through commonly consumed foods.

The Smart Choices front-of-package nutrition labeling program: rationale and development of the nutrition criteria.

The goal of the Smart Choices Program (SCP) is to provide a simple front-of-the-package icon system to direct consumers to smarter food choices in the supermarket, which will eventually lead to more balanced diets and to more beneficial foods as food manufacturers renovate products to meet the nutrition criteria for carrying the icon. The SCP was developed by a coalition of scientists and nutrition educators, experts with experience with dietary guidelines, public health organizations, and food manufacturers in response to consumer confusion over multiple front-of-the-package systems based on different criteria. Representatives from different government organizations acted as observers. The process of developing the program was facilitated by the nonprofit Keystone Center, an organization that develops consensus solutions to complex health and social policy changes. The nutrition criteria for receiving the SCP icon are specific for product category by indicating "smarter" products within that category. A calorie indicator noting calories per serving and servings per package accompanies the SCP icon to remind consumers that calories do count, even for smarter food choices. For a product to qualify, it first has to be below the threshold for "nutrients to limit" and then (in most cases) it must be above the threshold for one or more nutrients or food groups to encourage. The criteria are based on the 2005 Dietary Guidelines and other consensus science and are transparent and available on the SCP website. This article describes the nutrition criteria and rationales for their selection.

Dihydrophylloquinone intake is associated with low bone mineral density in men and women.

BACKGROUND: Poor diet may affect bone status by displacing nutrients involved in bone health. Dihydrophylloquinone, a form of vitamin K present in foods made with partially hydrogenated fat, is a potential marker of a low-quality dietary pattern. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to examine the cross-sectional associations between dihydrophylloquinone intake and bone mineral density (BMD) of the hip and spine in men and women. DESIGN: Dihydrophylloquinone intake was estimated with a food-frequency questionnaire, and BMD (in g/cm(2)) was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in 2544 men and women (mean age: 58.5 y) who had participated in the Framingham Offspring Study. General linear models were used to examine the associations between dihydrophylloquinone intake (in tertiles: <15.5, 15.5-29.5, and >29.5 microg/d) and hip and spine BMD after adjustment for age, body mass index, energy intake, calcium intake, vitamin D intake, smoking status, physical activity score, and, for women, menopause status and estrogen use. RESULTS: Higher dihydrophylloquinone intakes were associated with lower mean BMD at the femoral neck [lowest-to-highest tertiles (95% CI): 0.934 (0.925, 0.942), 0.927 (0.919, 0.935), and 0.917 (0.908, 0.926), P for trend = 0.02], the trochanter [lowest-to-highest tertiles (95% CI): 0.811 (0.802, 0.820), 0.805 (0.797, 0.813), and 0.795 (0.786, 0.804), P for trend = 0.02], and the spine [lowest-to-highest tertiles (95% CI): 1.250 (1.236, 1.264), 1.243 (1.242, 1.229), and 1.227 (1.213, 1.242), P for trend = 0.03] in men and women after adjustment for the covariates. Further adjustment for markers of healthy and low-quality dietary patterns did not affect the observed associations. CONCLUSIONS: Higher dihydrophylloquinone intakes are associated with lower BMD in men and women. This association remains significant after adjustment for other markers of diet quality.

Evidence for nutritional benefits in prolonging wellness.

Healthy aging involves the interaction between genes, the environment, and lifestyle factors, particularly diet and physical activity. Worldwide, the increase in life span has led to an increase in morbidity and mortality as the result of chronic, lifestyle-influenced diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Nutrient deficiency diseases are giving way to energy imbalances, and links between diet and chronic disease are becoming clearer. The global demographic, epidemiologic, and nutrition transitions are dramatic and point to an urgent need to focus on preventive approaches in health care. Thus, nutrition research has shifted from focusing exclusively on alleviating nutrient deficiencies to also stressing chronic disease prevention. Ongoing initiatives to optimize long-term health and promote healthy aging are based on the concept of functional fitness, ie, the ability to lead an active and healthy life. The Dietary Reference Intakes provide a framework for assessing nutrient adequacy at the population and individual levels. In addition, the Healthy Eating Index provides a single summary measure of diet quality. To effect changes in lifestyles to optimize health as we age, health care providers need to consider all the lifestyle and environmental factors contributing to suboptimal eating and lifestyle patterns.

The global face of nutrition: what can governments and industry do?

Investment in agricultural research and major developments in the technology of food production have led to dramatic increases in food availability, not only in industrialized nations but also across the globe. In addition, significant gains in improving nutritional status have been made over the past fifty years. These changes are the result of 1) the demographic transition, 2) the epidemiological transition, and 3) the nutrition transition. Countries throughout the world are at various stages of the nutrition transition, as traditional diets give way to eating patterns characterized by more animal products, more added sugar, and more added fat. The world health organizations now face a different dilemma. Increasingly, countries are documenting that food insecurity and undernutrition exist side by side with problems of overnutrition and chronic diseases. Investment in applied nutrition research is desperately needed to identify and implement effective approaches for promoting healthy lifestyles.