Backgrounder on Adult Nutrition As the 20th century draws to a close, concerns about adult nutrition differ significantly from those of earlier years. Prior to World War II, Americans' main nutritional problems stemmed from a lack of sufficient food or variety of foods. Nutrition scientists of that era focused on defining essential nutrients, primarily vitamins, in order to outline the minimum food intake necessary for good health. As American society became more affluent, however, nutritional concerns changed from the effects of too little food or nutrients to an overabundance of food or certain nutrients. Epidemiological and laboratory studies demonstrated a link between dietary excesses and chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease and cancer. These findings led to the development of dietary guidance intended to reduce Americans' risk of chronic disease. In the late 1970s, the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs issued the Dietary Goals for the United States. Since then, various federal agencies have issued similar recommendations for achieving a healthy diet, including The Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health in 1988, the National Research Council report Diet and Health: Implications for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk in 1989 and Healthy People 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives in 1990 by the U.S. Public Health Service. Dietary recommendations developed by independent health organizations such as the American Heart Association also closely resemble those issued by the federal government, indicating a general consensus among nutrition scientists regarding the role of diet in health and disease. Dietary Guidelines for Americans Modern dietary recommendations focus on ensuring an adequate intake of nutrients such as carbohydrates and fiber, while moderating others such as dietary fat which may be linked to the development of chronic disease. The recommendations are largely summed up in Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This publication was first developed more than a decade ago by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services for use in consumer nutrition education efforts with healthy Americans age two years and older. The third edition issued in 1990 advises: Eat a variety of foods Maintain healthy weight. Choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. Choose a diet with plenty of vegetables, fruits, and grain products. Use sugars only in moderation. Use salt and sodium only in moderation. If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation. In 1992, the USDA put forth the Food Guide Pyramid as a nutrition education tool to help put the Dietary Guidelines for Americans into action. The Pyramid serves as a general guide for daily food choices. It includes specific recommendations for daily intake of five different food groups as well as guidelines for moderating intake of fat and sugars. Healthy People 2000 Healthy People 2000 is a national initiative to improve the health of all Americans through prevention. It is driven by 300 specific national health promotion and disease prevention objectives targeted for achievement by the year 2000. The overall goals of this national initiative are to increase the span of healthy life, reduce health disparities among Americans and achieve access to preventive services. Nutrition is one of 22 priority areas in Healthy People 2000's national health promotion and disease prevention objectives. Year 2000 objectives related to the nutritional status of Americans are as follows: Reduce coronary heart disease deaths Reverse the rise in cancer deaths Reduce overweight prevalence Reduce growth retardation Reduce dietary fat intake Increase complex carbohydrate and fiber-containing foods in adult diets Increase sound weight loss practices Increase calcium intake Decrease salt and sodium intake Reduce iron deficiency Increase breastfeeding Decrease baby bottle tooth decay Increase use of food labels Achieve useful nutrition labeling Increase availability of low-fat foods Increase low-fat, low-calorie food choices Increase school and child care menus consistent with the Dietary Guidelines Increase home-delivered meals Increase nutrition education in schools Increase nutrition education and weight management programs at worksites Increase nutrition assessment, counseling and referrals National, state and local activities are ongoing to help achieve these nutrition objectives before the next millennium. Reprinted from the International Food Information Council Foundation, 1995

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