Nutrition Today

In 2008, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Dietary Supplement Use by Military Personnel recommended the development of service wide military policies (e.g., education or regulations) to guide commanders in management practices for safe use of dietary supplements (DS). This review summarizes the activities the military has undertaken to advance the safe use of DS by Service Members and develop best practices on reporting adverse events across the Department of Defense (DoD). In March 2022, the Department of Defense issued a DoD Instruction (DoDI) regarding the use of DS by members of the U S...

This review provides an overview of food allergies, their impact on affected individuals and caregivers, regulatory activities, and current research efforts to improve allergen management and patient care. Food allergies have been reported to affect up to 32 million Americans, including approximately 6 million children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that food allergies in children have clearly increased by 50% between 1997 and 2011. Recent years have seen significant advances in the understanding of responses to food allergens such as the development of response thresholds that hold promise for developing more informative labels on food packaging...

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 was issued jointly by the US Departments of Agriculture and of Health and Human Services in December 2020. It is the ninth edition of the Dietary Guidelines and is the first to provide recommendations by life stage, from birth to older adulthood. The Dietary Guidelines is grounded in the current body of scientific evidence on diet and health outcomes and aims to promote health and prevent chronic diseases. The process to develop the Dietary Guidelines involved 4 steps: (1) identifying the topics and supporting scientific questions, (2) appointing a Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (Committee) to review current scientific evidence, (3) developing the new edition of the Dietary Guidelines , and (4) implementing the Dietary Guidelines ...

This review provides an overview of the interrelationships among the diet, gut microbiota and health status, and then focuses specifically on published research assessing the relationship of low/no-calorie sweeteners (LNCS) to selected aspects of the gut microbiota. Microbiome research is expanding as new data on its role in health and disease vulnerability emerge. The gut microbiome affects health, digestion, and susceptibility to disease. In the last 10 years, investigations of LNCS effects on the gut microbiota have proliferated, though results are conflicting and are often confounded by differences in study design such as study diet, the form of the test article, dosage, and study population...

Veterinary pet supplements and nutraceuticals are widely used by dog, cat and horse owners across the United States, generating millions of dollars in revenue for manufacturers. Despite the widespread use of these veterinary products, oversight and regulation remain limited as compared to human dietary supplement regulations. This review describes the current regulation, quality control, safety and efficacy of pet supplements and nutraceuticals targeted towards the dog, cat and horse.

The category of "ultra-processed" foods in the NOVA food classification scheme is ostensibly based on industrial processing. We compared NOVA category assignments with the pre-existing family of Nutrient Rich Food (NRF) indices, first developed in 2005. NRF n.3 indices are composed of two subscores; the positive NRn based on protein, fiber, and n vitamins and minerals, and the negative LIM subscore based on saturated fat, added sugar, and sodium. The 378 foods that were components of the widely used Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center food frequency questionnaire were assigned to NOVA categories and scored using multiple NRF indices...

Over the last decade, there has been a growing interest in the utility of nitrate (NO3- ) supplementation to improve exercise-related performance. After consumption, dietary NO3- can be reduced to nitric oxide, a free radical gas involved in numerous physiological actions including blood vessel vasodilation, mitochondrial respiration, and skeletal muscle contractile function. Emerging evidence indicates that dietary NO3- supplementation has a small but nevertheless significant beneficial effect on endurance performance through the combined effects of enhanced tissue oxygenation and metabolic efficiency in active skeletal muscle...

This case study provides insights into policy strategy and advocacy best practices that resulted in passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, a public health law that resulted in improvements to school foods and beverages across the country. Congress reauthorizes child nutrition programs such as the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program every 5 years. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 is the legislation that reauthorized the child nutrition programs through September 30, 2015, and continues in effect today...

This review highlights the gaps in knowledge and methodological challenges discussed during the Experimental Biology 2019 expert panel session titled "Moving the Needle on Hypertension: What Knowledge Is Needed?" Hypertension is a critical public health burden. Despite a demonstrated benefit of blood pressure reduction on measures of hypertension-related morbidity and mortality, rates for successful blood pressure control remain low. Dietary sodium reduction has been shown to reduce both systolic blood pressure by approximately 3...

Of importance to federal agencies that administer health care facilities is capturing patient use of dietary supplements (DS) to avoid potential drug - supplement interactions. Digital technologies, such as use of the electronic medical record and the electronic health record (EHR) are key to monitoring health care. The particular electronic software package and the health care professional using this software influences how this documentation is recorded. A survey was conducted to determine how information on DS is being collected, recorded, and processed in EHR across federal agencies...

The ingredients and nutrients of infant and toddler foods (ITFs) sold in pouches were compared with products available in other packages, such as jars/packs and other containers. Company websites (n = 21) and in-store shelf inventory (n = 3) were used to create a database of commercial ITFs containing vegetables (n = 548) sold in the United States. Results indicated that ITFs containing vegetables were most commonly packaged in pouches (50%), followed by "other" packages (25%) and jars/packs (25%). Infant and toddler food pouches contained significantly more sugars per serving and per Reference Amount Customarily Consumed, as well as a greater percentage of calories from sugars, compared with both jars/packs and "other" packages...

Increased intake of potassium should be promoted to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke and to protect against bone loss, but confidence in recommended intakes depends on the strength of the evidence. All public health recommendations are considerably higher than current average intakes. Evidence on which current potassium intake recommendations for the United States, Europe, and globally have limitations. More recent evidence reviewed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality affirms that more evidence is needed to define specific values for optimal potassium intakes...

This article reports the study design, methodological issues and early results of a pilot study testing methods for collecting nutrition, physical activity, and ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure data in a groundbreaking study in China. Epidemiological studies suggest that exposures across the entire life course, including in utero, early childhood, and adolescence, may be important in the etiology of adult cancers and other chronic diseases. The Chinese Children and Families Cohort Study intends to follow-up subjects from the 1993 to 1995 Community Intervention Program of folic acid supplementation for the prevention of neural tube defects...

Nutrition is critically important in the first 1000 days, and while most American babies are fed commercial baby foods, there is little or no evidence from nationally representative data to understand the implications of such consumption. We used 24-hour dietary recall data for 505 infants from The Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study to describe food consumption patterns and micronutrient density of complementary foods consumed by infants fed commercially prepared baby food fruit, vegetables, and dinners and compared with those eaten by nonconsumers of these products...

Choline has been recognized as an essential nutrient by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academies of Medicine since 1998. Its metabolites have structural, metabolic, and regulatory roles within the body. Humans can endogenously produce small amounts of choline via the hepatic phosphatidylethanolamine N -methyltransferase pathway. However, the nutrient must be consumed exogenously to prevent signs of deficiency. The Adequate Intake (AI) for choline was calculated at a time when dietary intakes across the population were unknown for the nutrient...

Over half of young adults, athletes, and Military Service Members self-report using at least one dietary supplement (DS) 1 or more times per week. DS may be consumed to improve health, provide more energy, increase muscle strength, and/or enhance performance. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has raised concerns regarding adulteration, safety, and adverse events associated with DS marketed for brain health and bodybuilding. Some DS products may compromise health as well as lead to a serious adverse event...

While all experts agreed that protein needs for performance are likely greater than believed in past generations, particularly for strength training athletes, and that dietary fat could sustain an active person through lower-intensity training bouts, current research still points to carbohydrate as an indispensable energy source for high-intensity performance.

A large body of research data suggests that traditional dietary habits and lifestyle unique to the Mediterranean region (Mediterranean diet, MD) lower the incidence of chronic diseases and improve longevity. These data contrast with troubling statistics in the United States and other high income countries pointing to an increase in the incidence of chronic diseases and the projected explosion in cost of medical care associated with an aging population. In 2013, the MD was inscribed by UNESCO in the "Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity...

Domestic US sugar production has been protected by government policy for the past 82 years, resulting in elevated domestic prices and an estimated annual (2013) $1.4 billion dollar "tax" on consumers. These elevated prices and the simultaneous federal support for domestic corn production have ensured a strong market for high-fructose corn syrup. Americans have dramatically increased their consumption of caloric sweeteners during the same period. Consumption of "empty" calories (ie, foods with low-nutrient/high-caloric density)-sugar and high-fructose corn syrup being the primary sources-is considered by most public health experts to be a key contributing factor to the rise in obesity...

Food and agriculture commodity boards have become important funders of nutrition research. There are benefits and cautions (biases toward health benefits, failure to publish negative results, and aggressive promotion of single studies) for this activity. The California Dried Plum Board, along with other commodity boards, have developed independent Scientific Nutrition Advisory Panels to guide and evaluate the research they fund. In the case of the California Dried Plum Board, this has resulted in research that has distinguished the nature and dose of dried plum and juice to maintain bowel health and opened up a surprising new function for dried plum in the prevention of age-related bone loss...