Formula is often the sole source of nutrition for many infants, making its safety and quality particularly critical. While most food laws and regulations apply to infant formulas, they are also subject to additional requirements and manufacturer regulations for certain quality factors. These include an assessment of protein quality and demonstration that the formula supports normal infant physical growth.
Per the Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act of 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked the National Academies to examine and report on the state of the science regarding methodologies for assessing the biological quality of protein in infant formula and the ability of infant formula to support normal physical growth. The committee's statement of task noted that its analysis should include the examination of current study designs and methods that could demonstrate quality factors have been met. The resulting report presents conclusions, recommendations, and areas of future research to improve standardized procedures for assessing protein quality in infant formula.
Topics: Health and Medicine » Health Sciences | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), which serves as the primary source of dietary guidance from the federal government, provides recommendations for dietary intake and healthful dietary patterns - including alcohol intake. DGA recommendations are informed by systematic reviews. The last review on alcohol and health conducted for the DGA focused on all-cause mortality in 2020; however, questions related to weight changes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurocognitive health, and lactation have not been examined since 2010.
To inform the next edition of the DGA, Congress tasked the National Academies with convening an expert committee to independently review the evidence on the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and eight health outcomes including obesity, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. The resulting report, Review of Evidence on Alcohol and Health, presents the committee's findings and conclusions and does not offer dietary recommendations or advice.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
Infant formula is a primary or supplementary source of nutrition for many infants in the U.S. Consequently, disruptions to the supply of infant formula can have a severe impact on infants' health and well-being. In late 2021 and early 2022, a recall of specific infant formula products, followed by a pause in production, resulted in a widespread, national shortage. The incident demonstrated that additional risk management planning is needed to protect infants from the consequences of potential future supply chain disruptions.
In 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration contracted with the National Academies to convene an expert committee to examine and report on challenges in supply, market competition, and regulation of infant formula. The resulting consensus study report explains policy and marketplace vulnerabilities that were exposed during the shortage, describes the extent to which actions taken by relevant stakeholders addressed these vulnerabilities, identifies remaining gaps in the system, and recommends actions to reduce the risk and lessen the effect of any future disruption to the infant formula supply chain.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
Topics: Agriculture » Animal Health and Nutrition | Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes
The United States is an important food producer globally, in part because of its abundance of agriculturally productive soils. However, management practices that maximize yields have caused losses in soil organic matter, poor soil structure and water-holding capacity, and increased salinity on millions of acres of land - and have adversely affected the microbial communities that are the drivers of many soil processes. At the same time, recent scientific advances have spurred interest in how microbial communities can support soil health, food quality, and human health.
It is in this context that the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture asked the National Academies to explore the linkages between soil health and human health. The report finds that to improve soil health, federal agencies need to promote the importance of soil health, support translational research, and develop a coordinated national approach to monitor soil health over time and space. Given the potential that microbiomes have in modulating soil, plant, and human health, there is also a pressing need to determine which microbial features, if any, contribute to quantifying or fortifying health in both human and soil systems and to understand the direct and indirect roles of soil, alongside other environmental factors, in influencing human microbial colonization and subsequent health outcomes. Such investigation involves delving into the relatively sparse or disconnected research regarding the microbiome continuum that links soil and human systems.
Topics: Earth Sciences » Soil Science | Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety | Agriculture » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Health and Medicine » Environmental Health
Seafood--including marine and freshwater fish, mollusks, and crustaceans--is a healthy food choice, but it can also contain contaminants. It is currently unclear how much seafood children or pregnant and lactating women are consuming, and what impact seafood consumption is having on children's growth and development.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tasked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine with convening an expert committee to examine associations between seafood intake for children, adolescents, and pregnant and lactating women and child growth and development. The committee also evaluated when to conduct risk-benefit analyses (RBAs), while considering contextual factors such as equity, diversity, inclusion, and access to health care, and explored how these factors might impact RBAs.
Topics: Health and Medicine » Children's Health | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
Complementary feeding refers to the introduction of foods other than human milk or formula to an infants diet. In response to a request from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Academies Health and Medicine Division convened the Committee on Complementary Feeding Interventions for Infants and Young Children under Age 2 to conduct a consensus study scoping review of peer-reviewed literature and other publicly available information on interventions addressing complementary feeding of infants and young children. The interventions studied took place in the U.S. and other high-income country health care systems; early care and education settings; university cooperative extension programs; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); home visiting programs; and other settings. This consensus study report summarizes evidence and provides information on interventions that could be scaled up or implemented at a community or state level.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Health and Medicine » Children's Health
The Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) are a set of reference values that encompass a safe range of intake and provide recommended nutrient intakes for the United States and Canada. The DRIs for energy are used widely to provide guidance for maintaining energy balance on both an individual and group level.
U.S. and Canadian governments asked the National Academies to convene an expert committee to examine available evidence and provide updated Estimated Energy Requirements (EERs) for their populations. The resulting report presents EER equations that provide a baseline for dietary planners and assessors who are estimating energy needs and monitoring energy balance to enhance the general health of individuals and populations.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes | » Health and Medicine
This midcourse report provides an initial assessment of how the process used to develop the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 (DGA) compares to the recommendations in the 2017 National Academies report on redesigning the process for establishing the DGA. It also assesses the criteria and processes for including the scientific studies used to develop the guidelines. The scope of this study was to address the process and not the content of the guidelines.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
Si vous utilisez encore les anciens RDA ou ANR, il est temps de passer aux ANREF. Dietary Reference Intakes: The Essential Guide to Nutrient Requirements, rédigé par l'Institute of Medicine en partenarait avec Santé Canada fournit les renseignements les plus exacts, pratiques et à jour pour élaborer des programmes éducatifs sur la nutrition, évaluer et planifier des régimes alimentaires pour des individus et des groupes, fixer des normes pour les programmes d'aide alimentaire et l'étiquetage nutritionnel, faciliter le développment de nouveaux produits par l'industrie et évaluer l'appovisionnement alimentaire relatifs aux besoins nutritionnels de la population.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes
Approximately 30 percent of the edible food produced in the United States is wasted and a significant portion of this waste occurs at the consumer level. Despite food's essential role as a source of nutrients and energy and its emotional and cultural importance, U.S. consumers waste an estimated average of 1 pound of food per person per day at home and in places where they buy and consume food away from home. Many factors contribute to this waste—consumers behaviors are shaped not only by individual and interpersonal factors but also by influences within the food system, such as policies, food marketing and the media. Some food waste is unavoidable, and there is substantial variation in how food waste and its impacts are defined and measured. But there is no doubt that the consequences of food waste are severe: the wasting of food is costly to consumers, depletes natural resources, and degrades the environment. In addition, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has severely strained the U.S. economy and sharply increased food insecurity, it is predicted that food waste will worsen in the short term because of both supply chain disruptions and the closures of food businesses that affect the way people eat and the types of food they can afford.
A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level identifies strategies for changing consumer behavior, considering interactions and feedbacks within the food system. It explores the reasons food is wasted in the United States, including the characteristics of the complex systems through which food is produced, marketed, and sold, as well as the many other interconnected influences on consumers' conscious and unconscious choices about purchasing, preparing, consuming, storing, and discarding food. This report presents a strategy for addressing the challenge of reducing food waste at the consumer level from a holistic, systems perspective.
Topics: Behavioral and Social Sciences » Environment and Society | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
Recommendations for feeding infants and young children have changed substantially over time owing to scientific advances, cultural influences, societal trends, and other factors. At the same time, stronger approaches to reviewing and synthesizing scientific evidence have evolved, such that there are now established protocols for developing evidence-based health recommendations. However, not all authoritative bodies have used such approaches for developing infant feeding guidance, and for many feeding questions there is little or no sound evidence available to guide best practices, despite the fact that research on infant and young child feeding has expanded in recent decades. Summarizing the current landscape of feeding recommendations for infants and young children can reveal the level of consistency of existing guidance, shed light on the types of evidence that underpin each recommendation, and provide insight into the feasibility of harmonizing guidelines.
Feeding Infants and Children from Birth to 24 Months collects, compares, and summarizes existing recommendations on what and how to feed infants and young children from birth to 24 months of age. This report makes recommendations to stakeholders on strategies for communicating and disseminating feeding recommendations.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Children's Health | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
As essential nutrients, sodium and potassium contribute to the fundamentals of physiology and pathology of human health and disease. In clinical settings, these are two important blood electrolytes, are frequently measured and influence care decisions. Yet, blood electrolyte concentrations are usually not influenced by dietary intake, as kidney and hormone systems carefully regulate blood values.
Over the years, increasing evidence suggests that sodium and potassium intake patterns of children and adults influence long-term population health mostly through complex relationships among dietary intake, blood pressure and cardiovascular health. The public health importance of understanding these relationships, based upon the best available evidence and establishing recommendations to support the development of population clinical practice guidelines and medical care of patients is clear.
This report reviews evidence on the relationship between sodium and potassium intakes and indicators of adequacy, toxicity, and chronic disease. It updates the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) using an expanded DRI model that includes consideration of chronic disease endpoints, and outlines research gaps to address the uncertainties identified in the process of deriving the reference values and evaluating public health implications.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
For nearly a century, scientific advances have fueled progress in U.S. agriculture to enable American producers to deliver safe and abundant food domestically and provide a trade surplus in bulk and high-value agricultural commodities and foods. Today, the U.S. food and agricultural enterprise faces formidable challenges that will test its long-term sustainability, competitiveness, and resilience. On its current path, future productivity in the U.S. agricultural system is likely to come with trade-offs. The success of agriculture is tied to natural systems, and these systems are showing signs of stress, even more so with the change in climate.
More than a third of the food produced is unconsumed, an unacceptable loss of food and nutrients at a time of heightened global food demand. Increased food animal production to meet greater demand will generate more greenhouse gas emissions and excess animal waste. The U.S. food supply is generally secure, but is not immune to the costly and deadly shocks of continuing outbreaks of food-borne illness or to the constant threat of pests and pathogens to crops, livestock, and poultry. U.S. farmers and producers are at the front lines and will need more tools to manage the pressures they face.
Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research by 2030 identifies innovative, emerging scientific advances for making the U.S. food and agricultural system more efficient, resilient, and sustainable. This report explores the availability of relatively new scientific developments across all disciplines that could accelerate progress toward these goals. It identifies the most promising scientific breakthroughs that could have the greatest positive impact on food and agriculture, and that are possible to achieve in the next decade (by 2030).
Topics: Agriculture » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Earth Sciences » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Environment and Environmental Studies » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
As women of childbearing age have become heavier, the trade-off between maternal and child health created by variation in gestational weight gain has become more difficult to reconcile. Weight Gain During Pregnancy responds to the need for a reexamination of the 1990 Institute of Medicine guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy. It builds on the conceptual framework that underscored the 1990 weight gain guidelines and addresses the need to update them through a comprehensive review of the literature and independent analyses of existing databases. The book explores relationships between weight gain during pregnancy and a variety of factors (e.g., the mother's weight and height before pregnancy) and places this in the context of the health of the infant and the mother, presenting specific, updated target ranges for weight gain during pregnancy and guidelines for proper measurement. New features of this book include a specific range of recommended gain for obese women.
Weight Gain During Pregnancy is intended to assist practitioners who care for women of childbearing age, policy makers, educators, researchers, and the pregnant women themselves to understand the role of gestational weight gain and to provide them with the tools needed to promote optimal pregnancy outcomes.
Topics: Health and Medicine » Women's Health | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Over the past 20 years, public concerns have grown in response to the apparent rising prevalence of food allergy and related atopic conditions, such as eczema. Although evidence on the true prevalence of food allergy is complicated by insufficient or inconsistent data and studies with variable methodologies, many health care experts who care for patients agree that a real increase in food allergy has occurred and that it is unlikely to be due simply to an increase in awareness and better tools for diagnosis. Many stakeholders are concerned about these increases, including the general public, policy makers, regulatory agencies, the food industry, scientists, clinicians, and especially families of children and young people suffering from food allergy.
At the present time, however, despite a mounting body of data on the prevalence, health consequences, and associated costs of food allergy, this chronic disease has not garnered the level of societal attention that it warrants. Moreover, for patients and families at risk, recommendations and guidelines have not been clear about preventing exposure or the onset of reactions or for managing this disease.
Finding a Path to Safety in Food Allergy examines critical issues related to food allergy, including the prevalence and severity of food allergy and its impact on affected individuals, families, and communities; and current understanding of food allergy as a disease, and in diagnostics, treatments, prevention, and public policy. This report seeks to: clarify the nature of the disease, its causes, and its current management; highlight gaps in knowledge; encourage the implementation of management tools at many levels and among many stakeholders; and delineate a roadmap to safety for those who have, or are at risk of developing, food allergy, as well as for others in society who are responsible for public health.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
How we produce and consume food has a bigger impact on Americans' well-being than any other human activity. The food industry is the largest sector of our economy; food touches everything from our health to the environment, climate change, economic inequality, and the federal budget. From the earliest developments of agriculture, a major goal has been to attain sufficient foods that provide the energy and the nutrients needed for a healthy, active life. Over time, food production, processing, marketing, and consumption have evolved and become highly complex. The challenges of improving the food system in the 21st century will require systemic approaches that take full account of social, economic, ecological, and evolutionary factors. Policy or business interventions involving a segment of the food system often have consequences beyond the original issue the intervention was meant to address.
A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System develops an analytical framework for assessing effects associated with the ways in which food is grown, processed, distributed, marketed, retailed, and consumed in the United States. The framework will allow users to recognize effects across the full food system, consider all domains and dimensions of effects, account for systems dynamics and complexities, and choose appropriate methods for analysis. This report provides example applications of the framework based on complex questions that are currently under debate: consumption of a healthy and safe diet, food security, animal welfare, and preserving the environment and its resources.
A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System describes the U.S. food system and provides a brief history of its evolution into the current system. This report identifies some of the real and potential implications of the current system in terms of its health, environmental, and socioeconomic effects along with a sense for the complexities of the system, potential metrics, and some of the data needs that are required to assess the effects. The overview of the food system and the framework described in this report will be an essential resource for decision makers, researchers, and others to examine the possible impacts of alternative policies or agricultural or food processing practices.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Agriculture » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
Obesity poses one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century, creating serious health, economic, and social consequences for individuals and society. Despite acceleration in efforts to characterize, comprehend, and act on this problem, including implementation of preventive interventions, further understanding is needed on the progress and effectiveness of these interventions.
Evaluating Obesity Prevention Efforts develops a concise and actionable plan for measuring the nation's progress in obesity prevention efforts—specifically, the success of policy and environmental strategies recommended in the 2012 IOM report Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the Nation. This book offers a framework that will provide guidance for systematic and routine planning, implementation, and evaluation of the advancement of obesity prevention efforts. This framework is for specific use with the goals and strategies from the 2012 report and can be used to assess the progress made in every community and throughout the country, with the ultimate goal of reducing the obesity epidemic. It offers potentially valuable guidance in improving the quality and effect of the actions being implemented.
The recommendations of Evaluating Obesity Prevention Efforts focus on efforts to increase the likelihood that actions taken to prevent obesity will be evaluated, that their progress in accelerating the prevention of obesity will be monitored, and that the most promising practices will be widely disseminated.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Health and Medicine » Public Health and Prevention
One-third of adults are now obese, and children's obesity rates have climbed from 5 to 17 percent in the past 30 years. The causes of the nation's obesity epidemic are multi-factorial, having much more to do with the absence of sidewalks and the limited availability of healthy and affordable foods than a lack of personal responsibility. The broad societal changes that are needed to prevent obesity will inevitably affect activity and eating environments and settings for all ages. Many aspects of the obesity problem have been identified and discussed; however, there has not been complete agreement on what needs to be done to accelerate progress.
Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention reviews previous studies and their recommendations and presents five key recommendations to accelerate meaningful change on a societal level during the next decade. The report suggests recommendations and strategies that, independently, can accelerate progress, but urges a systems approach of many strategies working in concert to maximize progress in accelerating obesity prevention.
The recommendations in Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention include major reforms in access to and opportunities for physical activity; widespread reductions in the availability of unhealthy foods and beverages and increases in access to healthier options at affordable, competitive prices; an overhaul of the messages that surround Americans through marketing and education with respect to physical activity and food consumption; expansion of the obesity prevention support structure provided by health care providers, insurers, and employers; and schools as a major national focal point for obesity prevention. The report calls on all individuals, organizations, agencies, and sectors that do or can influence physical activity and nutrition environments to assess and begin to act on their potential roles as leaders in obesity prevention.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Children's Health
Childhood obesity is a serious health problem that has adverse and long-lasting consequences for individuals, families, and communities. The magnitude of the problem has increased dramatically during the last three decades and, despite some indications of a plateau in this growth, the numbers remain stubbornly high. Efforts to prevent childhood obesity to date have focused largely on school-aged children, with relatively little attention to children under age 5. However, there is a growing awareness that efforts to prevent childhood obesity must begin before children ever enter the school system.
Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies reviews factors related to overweight and obese children from birth to age 5, with a focus on nutrition, physical activity, and sedentary behavior, and recommends policies that can alter children's environments to promote the maintenance of healthy weight. Because the first years of life are important to health and well-being throughout the life span, preventing obesity in infants and young children can contribute to reversing the epidemic of obesity in children and adults. The book recommends that health care providers make parents aware of their child's excess weight early. It also suggests that parents and child care providers keep children active throughout the day, provide them with healthy diets, limit screen time, and ensure children get adequate sleep.
In addition to providing comprehensive solutions to tackle the problem of obesity in infants and young children, Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies identifies potential actions that could be taken to implement those recommendations. The recommendations can inform the decisions of state and local child care regulators, child care providers, health care providers, directors of federal and local child care and nutrition programs, and government officials at all levels.
Topics: Health and Medicine » Children's Health | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Widely regarded as the classic reference work for the nutrition, dietetic, and allied health professions since its introduction in 1943, Recommended Dietary Allowances has been the accepted source in nutrient allowances for healthy people. Responding to the expansion of scientific knowledge about the roles of nutrients in human health, the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine, in partnership with Health Canada, has updated what used to be known as Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) and renamed their new approach to these guidelines Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs).
Since 1998, the Institute of Medicine has issued eight exhaustive volumes of DRIs that offer quantitative estimates of nutrient intakes to be used for planning and assessing diets applicable to healthy individuals in the United States and Canada. Now, for the first time, all eight volumes are summarized in one easy-to-use reference volume, Dietary Reference Intakes: The Essential Reference for Dietary Planning and Assessment. Organized by nutrient for ready use, this popular reference volume reviews the function of each nutrient in the human body, food sources, usual dietary intakes, and effects of deficiencies and excessive intakes. For each nutrient of food component, information includes:
Also included is a "Summary Table of Dietary Reference Intakes," an updated practical summary of the recommendations. In addition, Dietary Reference Intakes: The Essential Reference for Dietary Planning and Assessment provides information about:
Dietitians, community nutritionists, nutrition educators, nutritionists working in government agencies, and nutrition students at the postsecondary level, as well as other health professionals, will find Dietary Reference Intakes: The Essential Reference for Dietary Planning and Assessment an invaluable resource.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is a federally-funded program designed to provide healthy meals and snacks to children and adults while receiving day care at participating family day care homes, traditional child care centers, afterschool facilities, adult care facilities, and emergency shelters. CACFP has the broadest scope of any of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) food program, serving more than 3 million children and 114,000 adults across the nation. To receive reimbursement for the foods served, participating programs must abide by requirements set by the USDA.
Child and Adult Care Food Program assesses the nutritional needs of the CACFP population based on Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) and makes recommendations for revisions to the CACFP meal requirements. The book outlines meal requirements that include food specifications that could be used for specific meals and across a full day, covering all age groups from infants to older adults and meal patterns designed for use in a variety of settings, including in-home care and in large centers. By implementing these meal requirements, consumption of fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain rich foods will increase while consumption of solid fats, added sugars, and sodium will decrease. Not only will this address the high prevalence of childhood obesity, it will also help to achieve consistency with the standards and regulations of other USDA nutrition assistance programs, particularly the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs.
Child and Adult Care Food Program makes practical recommendations that would bring CACFP meals and snacks into alignment with current dietary guidance. The book will serve as a vital resource for federal and state public health officials, care providers working in child and adult day care facilities, WIC agencies, officials working with the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs, and other organizations serving at-risk populations.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Children's Health
Calcium and vitamin D are essential nutrients for the human body. Establishing the levels of these nutrients that are needed by the North American population is based on the understanding of the health outcomes that calcium and vitamin D affect. It is also important to establish how much of each nutrient may be "too much."
Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D provides reference intake values for these two nutrients. The report updates the DRI values defined in Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D, and Fluoride, the 1997 study from the Institute of Medicine. This 2011 book provides background information on the biological functions of each nutrient, reviews health outcomes that are associated with the intake of calcium and vitamin D, and specifies Estimated Average Requirements and Recommended Dietary Allowances for both. It also identifies Tolerable Upper Intake Levels, which are levels above wish the risk for harm may increase. The book includes an overview of current dietary intake in the U.S. and Canada, and discusses implications of the study. A final chapter provides research recommendations.
The DRIs established in this book incorporate current scientific evidence about the roles of vitamin D and calcium in human health and will serve as a valuable guide for a range of stakeholders including dietitians and other health professionals, those who set national nutrition policy, researchers, the food industry, and private and public health organizations and partnerships.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes | Health and Medicine » Cancer
The time has come to initiate a new program of research on the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (commonly referred to as WIC). WIC is the third largest food assistance program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The program's scope is large, serving approximately 9.3 million low-income women, infants, and children at nutritional risk. Through federal grants to states, participants receive three types of benefits: 1) a supplemental food package tailored to specific age groups for infants and children; 2) nutrition education, including breastfeeding support; and 3) referrals to health services and social services. To cover program costs for fiscal year (FY) 2010, Congress appropriated $7.252 billion. Congress also appropriated $15 million for research related to the program for FY 2010.
The timing of the funding for WIC research is propitious. In October 2009, USDA issued regulations that made substantial revisions to the WIC food package. These revisions are the first major change in the food package since the program's inception in 1972. Over the intervening years WIC has expanded greatly, Medicaid coverage has increased, large changes have occurred in the racial and ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic status of WIC participants as well as in public health services, and obesity rates have increased substantially among the general population.
To guide its planning for the use of the $15 million allocated for WIC research, the Food and Nutrition Service of USDA asked the Institute of Medicine to conduct a two-day public workshop on emerging research needs for WIC. As requested, the workshop included presentations and discussions to illuminate issues related to future WIC research issues, methodological challenges, and solutions. The workshop also planned for a program of research to determine the effects of WIC on maternal and child health outcomes.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
To battle the obesity epidemic in America, health care professionals and policymakers need relevant, useful data on the effectiveness of obesity prevention policies and programs. Bridging the Evidence Gap in Obesity Prevention identifies a new approach to decision making and research on obesity prevention to use a systems perspective to gain a broader understanding of the context of obesity and the many factors that influence it.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Public Health and Prevention
Recent outbreaks of illnesses traced to contaminated sprouts and lettuce illustrate the holes that exist in the system for monitoring problems and preventing foodborne diseases. Although it is not solely responsible for ensuring the safety of the nation's food supply, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees monitoring and intervention for 80 percent of the food supply. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's abilities to discover potential threats to food safety and prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness are hampered by impediments to efficient use of its limited resources and a piecemeal approach to gathering and using information on risks. Enhancing Food Safety: The Role of the Food and Drug Administration, a new book from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, responds to a congressional request for recommendations on how to close gaps in FDA's food safety systems.
Enhancing Food Safety begins with a brief review of the Food Protection Plan (FPP), FDA's food safety philosophy developed in 2007. The lack of sufficient detail and specific strategies in the FPP renders it ineffectual. The book stresses the need for FPP to evolve and be supported by the type of strategic planning described in these pages. It also explores the development and implementation of a stronger, more effective food safety system built on a risk-based approach to food safety management. Conclusions and recommendations include adopting a risk-based decision-making approach to food safety; creating a data surveillance and research infrastructure; integrating federal, state, and local government food safety programs; enhancing efficiency of inspections; and more.
Although food safety is the responsibility of everyone, from producers to consumers, the FDA and other regulatory agencies have an essential role. In many instances, the FDA must carry out this responsibility against a backdrop of multiple stakeholder interests, inadequate resources, and competing priorities. Of interest to the food production industry, consumer advocacy groups, health care professionals, and others, Enhancing Food Safety provides the FDA and Congress with a course of action that will enable the agency to become more efficient and effective in carrying out its food safety mission in a rapidly changing world.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety | Health and Medicine » Medical Technologies and Treatments
Reducing the intake of sodium is an important public health goal for Americans. Since the 1970s, an array of public health interventions and national dietary guidelines has sought to reduce sodium intake. However, the U.S. population still consumes more sodium than is recommended, placing individuals at risk for diseases related to elevated blood pressure.
Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States evaluates and makes recommendations about strategies that could be implemented to reduce dietary sodium intake to levels recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The book reviews past and ongoing efforts to reduce the sodium content of the food supply and to motivate consumers to change behavior. Based on past lessons learned, the book makes recommendations for future initiatives. It is an excellent resource for federal and state public health officials, the processed food and food service industries, health care professionals, consumer advocacy groups, and academic researchers.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes
Ensuring that the food provided to children in schools is consistent with current dietary recommendations is an important national focus. Various laws and regulations govern the operation of school meal programs. In 1995, Nutrition Standards and Meal Requirements were put in place to ensure that all meals offered would be high in nutritional quality.
School Meals reviews and provides recommendations to update the nutrition standard and the meal requirements for the National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs. The recommendations reflect new developments in nutrition science, increase the availability of key food groups in the school meal programs, and allow these programs to better meet the nutritional needs of children, foster healthy eating habits, and safeguard children's health.
School Meals sets standards for menu planning that focus on food groups, calories, saturated fat, and sodium and that incorporate Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Dietary Reference Intakes. This book will be used as a guide for school food authorities, food producers, policy leaders, state/local governments, and parents.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Health and Medicine » Children's Health
The prevalence of childhood obesity is so high in the United States that it may reduce the life expectancy of today's generation of children. While parents and other adult caregivers play a fundamental role in teaching children about healthy behaviors, even the most positive efforts can be undermined by local environments that are poorly suited to supporting healthy behaviors. For example, many communities lack ready sources of healthy food choices, such as supermarkets and grocery stores. Or they may not provide safe places for children to walk or play. In such communities, even the most motivated child or adolescent may find it difficult to act in healthy ways. Local governments—with jurisdiction over many aspects of land use, food marketing, community planning, transportation, health and nutrition programs, and other community issues—are ideally positioned to promote behaviors that will help children and adolescents reach and maintain healthy weights.
Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity presents a number of recommendations that touch on the vital role of government actions on all levels—federal, state, and local—in childhood obesity prevention. The book offers healthy eating and physical activity strategies for local governments to consider, making it an excellent resource for mayors, managers, commissioners, council members, county board members, and administrators.
Topics: Health and Medicine » Children's Health | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
Foods and beverages sold at school outside of the federally reimbursable school nutrition programs are referred to as "competitive foods" because they compete with the traditional school lunch as a nutrition source. There are important concerns about the contribution of nutrients and total calories from competitive foods to the daily diets of school-age children and adolescents.
Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools offers both reviews and recommendations about appropriate nutrition standards and guidance for the sale, content, and consumption of foods and beverages at school, with attention given to foods and beverages offered in competition with federally reimbursable meals and snacks. It is sure to be an invaluable resource to parents, federal and state government agencies, educators and schools, health care professionals, food manufacturers, industry trade groups, media, and those involved in consumer advocacy.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Children's Health
Seafood Choices carefully explores the decision-making process for selecting seafood by assessing the evidence on availability of specific nutrients (compared to other food sources) to obtain the greatest nutritional benefits. The book prioritizes the potential for adverse health effects from both naturally occurring and introduced toxicants in seafood; assesses evidence on the availability of specific nutrients in seafood compared to other food sources; determines the impact of modifying food choices to reduce intake of toxicants on nutrient intake and nutritional status within the U.S. population; develops a decision path for U.S. consumers to weigh their seafood choices to obtain nutritional benefits balanced against exposure risks; and identifies data gaps and recommendations for future research.
The information provided in this book will benefit food technologists, food manufacturers, nutritionists, and those involved in health professions making nutritional recommendations.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes
Creating an environment in which children in the United States grow up healthy should be a high priority for the nation. Yet the prevailing pattern of food and beverage marketing to children in America represents, at best, a missed opportunity, and at worst, a direct threat to the health prospects of the next generation. Children's dietary and related health patterns are shaped by the interplay of many factors—their biologic affinities, their culture and values, their economic status, their physical and social environments, and their commercial media environments—all of which, apart from their genetic predispositions, have undergone significant transformations during the past three decades. Among these environments, none have more rapidly assumed central socializing roles among children and youth than the media. With the growth in the variety and the penetration of the media have come a parallel growth with their use for marketing, including the marketing of food and beverage products.
What impact has food and beverage marketing had on the dietary patterns and health status of American children? The answer to this question has the potential to shape a generation and is the focus of Food Marketing to Children and Youth. This book will be of interest to parents, federal and state government agencies, educators and schools, health care professionals, industry companies, industry trade groups, media, and those involved in community and consumer advocacy.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Topics: Conflict and Security Issues » Military and Defense Studies | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Responding to the expansion of scientific knowledge about the roles of nutrients in human health, the Institute of Medicine has developed a new approach to establish Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) and other nutrient reference values. The new title for these values Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), is the inclusive name being given to this new approach. These are quantitative estimates of nutrient intakes applicable to healthy individuals in the United States and Canada. This new book is part of a series of books presenting dietary reference values for the intakes of nutrients. It establishes recommendations for energy, carbohydrate, fiber, fat, fatty acids, cholesterol, protein, and amino acids. This book presents new approaches and findings which include the following:
Also detailed are recommendations for both physical activity and energy expenditure to maintain health and decrease the risk of disease.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes
Written and organized to be accessible to a wide range of readers, Improving America's Diet and Health explores how Americans can be persuaded to adopt healthier eating habits. Moving well beyond the "pamphlet and public service announcement" approach to dietary change, this volume investigates current eating patterns in this country, consumers' beliefs and attitudes about food and nutrition, the theory and practice of promoting healthy behaviors, and needs for further research.
The core of the volume consists of strategies and actions targeted to sectors of society—government, the private sector, the health professions, the education community—that have special responsibilities for encouraging and enabling consumers to eat better. These recommendations form the basis for three principal strategies necessary to further the implementation of dietary recommendations in the United States.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Public Health and Prevention
Nearly one out of every three adults in America is obese and tens of millions of people in the United States are dieting at any one time. This has resulted in a weight-loss industry worth billions of dollars a year and growing. What are the long-term results of weight-loss programs? How can people sort through the many programs available and select one that is right for them? Weighing the Options strives to answer these questions. Despite widespread public concern about weight, few studies have examined the long-term results of weight-loss programs. One reason that evaluating obesity management is difficult is that no other treatment depends so much on an individual's own initiative and state of mind.
Now, a distinguished group of experts assembled by the Institute of Medicine addresses this compelling issue. Weighing the Options presents criteria for evaluating treatment programs for obesity and explores what these criteria mean—to health care providers, program designers, researchers, and even overweight people seeking help.
In presenting its criteria the authors offer a wealth of information about weight loss: how obesity is on the rise, what types of weight-loss programs are available, how to define obesity, how well we maintain weight loss, and what approaches and practices appear to be most successful.
Information about weight-loss programs—their clients, staff qualifications, services, and success rates—necessary to make wise program choices is discussed in detail.
The book examines how client demographics and characteristics—including health status, knowledge of weight-loss issues, and attitude toward weight and body image—affect which programs clients choose, how successful they are likely to be with their choices, and what this means for outcome measurement. Short- and long-term safety consequences of weight loss are discussed as well as clinical assessment of individual patients.
The authors document the health risks of being overweight, summarizing data indicating that even a small weight loss reduces the risk of disease and depression and increases self-esteem. At the same time, weight loss has been associated with some poor outcomes, and the book discusses the implications for program evaluation.
Prevention can be even more important than treatment. In Weighing the Options, programs for population groups, efforts targeted to specific groups at high risk for obesity, and prevention of further weight gain in obese individuals get special attention.
This book provides detailed guidance on how the weight-loss industry can improve its programs to help people be more successful at long-term weight loss. And it provides consumers with tips on selecting a program that will improve their chances of permanently losing excess weight.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Conflict and Security Issues » Military and Defense Studies
This book reviews the research pertaining to nutrient requirements for working in cold or in high-altitude environments and states recommendations regarding the application of this information to military operational rations. It addresses whether, aside from increased energy demands, cold or high-altitude environments elicit an increased demand or requirement for specific nutrients, and whether performance in cold or high-altitude environments can be enhanced by the provision of increased amounts of specific nutrients.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Military and Veterans
Micronutrient malnutrition affects approximately 2 billion people worldwide. The adverse effects of micronutrient deficiencies are profound and include premature death, poor health, blindness, growth stunting, mental retardation, learning disabilities, and low work capacity. Preventing Micronutrient Deficiencies provides a conceptual framework based on past experience that will allow funders to tailor programs to existing regional/country capabilities and to incorporate within these programs the capacity to address multiple strategies (i.e., supplementation/fortification/food-based approaches/public health measures) and multiple micronutrient deficiencies.
The book does not offer recommendations on how to alleviate specific micronutrient deficiencies—such recommendations are already available through the publications of diverse organizations, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Micronutrient Initiative, World Bank, United Nations Childrens' Fund, and the World Health Organization. Instead, this volume examines key elements in the design and implementation of micronutrient interventions, including such issues as:
The importance of iron, vitamin A, and iodine to health. Populations at risk for micronutrient deficiency. Options for successful interventions and their cost. The feasibility of involving societal sectors in the planning and implementation of interventions. Characteristics of successful interventions.
The book also contains three in-depth background papers that address the prevention of deficiencies of iron, vitamin A, and iodine.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Since 1994 the Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board has been involved in developing an expanded approach to developing dietary reference standards. This approach, the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), provides a set of four nutrient-based reference values designed to replace the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) in the United States and the Recommended Nutrient Intakes (RNIs) in Canada. These reference values include Estimated Average Requirement (EAR), Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA), Adequate Intake (AI), and Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL). To date, several volumes in this series have been published.
This new book, Applications in Dietary Assessment, provides guidance to nutrition and health research professionals on the application of the new DRIs. It represents both a "how to" manual and a "why" manual. Specific examples of both appropriate and inappropriate uses of the DRIs in assessing nutrient adequacy of groups and of individuals are provided, along with detailed statistical approaches for the methods described. In addition, a clear distinction is made between assessing individuals and assessing groups as the approaches used are quite different. Applications in Dietary Assessment will be an essential companion to any-or all-of the DRI volumes.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
This book considers two important international nutrition issues, provides a scientific evaluation, and proposes strategies for intervention at the community level.
Part I, Diarrheal Diseases, considers the dietary and nutritional factors that may affect the risk of contracting diarrheal disease and presents programmatic implications of these findings.
Part II, Diet and Activity During Pregnancy and Lactation, examines data on the extent to which women in the developing world are known to reduce or otherwise alter their activities and diets as a result of childbearing.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
The growing consumer interest in health and fitness has expanded the market for a wide range of products, from yoga mats to the multiple dietary supplements now on the market. Supplements are popular, but are they safe? Many dietary supplements are probably safe when used as recommended. However, since 1994 when Congress decided that they should be regulated as if they were foods, they are assumed to be safe unless the Food and Drug Administration can demonstrate that they pose a significant risk to the consumer. But there are many types of products that qualify as dietary supplements, and the distinctions can become muddled and vague. Manufacturers are not legally required to provide specific information about safety before marketing their products. And the sales of supplements have been steadily increasing—all together, the various types now bring in almost $16 billion per year. Given these confounding factors, what kind of information can the Food and Drug Administration use to effectively regulate dietary supplements? This book provides a framework for evaluating dietary supplement safety and protecting the health of consumers.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Conflict and Security Issues » Military and Defense Studies
This book presents the results of a meeting held by the Board on Science and Technology for International Development. At this meeting, six groups of modelers presented their best estimates of the food aid/food commodity trade picture during the period 1991-2000. These estimates are based on each modeler's own database and own assumptions about trends in global policy, climate, population, and economics.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
The use of drugs in food animal production has resulted in benefits throughout the food industry; however, their use has also raised public health safety concerns.
The Use of Drugs in Food Animals provides an overview of why and how drugs are used in the major food-producing animal industries—poultry, dairy, beef, swine, and aquaculture. The volume discusses the prevalence of human pathogens in foods of animal origin. It also addresses the transfer of resistance in animal microbes to human pathogens and the resulting risk of human disease.
The committee offers analysis and insight into these areas:
The volume also looks at how drug use may be minimized with new approaches in genetics, nutrition, and animal management.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety | Health and Medicine » Public Health and Prevention
On the basis of a comprehensive literature review and analysis, Nutrition During Lactation points out specific directions for needed research in understanding the relationship between the nutrition of healthy mothers and the outcomes of lactation. Of widest interest are the committee's clear-cut recommendations for mothers and health care providers.
The volume presents data on who among U.S. mothers is breastfeeding, a critical evaluation of methods for assessing the nutritional status of lactating women, and an analysis of how to relate the mother's nutrition to the volume and composition of the milk.
Available data on the links between a mother's nutrition and the nutrition and growth of her infant and current information on the risk of transmission through breastfeeding of allergic diseases, environmental toxins, and certain viruses (including the HIV virus) are included. Nutrition During Lactation also studies the effects of maternal cigarette smoking, drug use, and alcohol consumption.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Women's Health
The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), part of the National Academies, was asked to evaluate the use of various dietary assessment tools and to make recommendations for the assessment of inadequate or inappropriate dietary patterns. These assessments should accurately identify dietary risk of individuals and thus eligibility for participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The Committee on Dietary Risk Assessment in the WIC Program was appointed for the 2-year study and directed to develop an interim report which was to include (1) a framework for assessing inadequate diet or inappropriate dietary patterns, (2) a summary of a workshop on methods to assess dietary risk, and (3) the results of literature searches conducted to date.
This interim report includes these three components. Building on the approach used in the 1996 IOM report, WIC Nutrition Risk Criteria, the framework proposed by the committee identifies characteristics of dietary assessment tools that can identify dietary patterns or behaviors for which there is scientific evidence of increased nutrition or health risk in either the short or long-term. The proposed framework consists of eight characteristics that a food intake and/or behavior-based tool should have when used to determine eligibility to participate in WIC programs. This interim report also includes authored summaries of the presentations at the workshop, along with the results of literature searches conducted in the initial phase of the study.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Each year the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must estimate the number of people who are eligible to participate in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). These USDA estimates have come under critical scrutiny in part because the number of infants and postpartum women who have actually enrolled in the program has exceeded the number estimated to be eligible by as much as 20 to 30 percent. These high "coverage rates" have led some members of Congress to conclude that some people who participate are truly ineligible, and that funding could be reduced somewhat and still meet the needs of truly eligible persons who wish to participate. But some advocates and state WIC agencies believe that the estimates of the number of eligible persons are too low and more people who are eligible and want to participate could do so.
In response to these concerns, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the USDA asked the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council to convene a panel of experts to review the methods used to estimate the number of people nationwide who are eligible and likely to participate in the WIC program. The panel's charge is to review currently used and alternative data and methods for estimating income eligibility, adjunctive eligibility from participation in other public assistance programs, nutritional risk, and participation if the program is fully funded.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
The Committee on Examination of the Evolving Science for Dietary Supplements of the Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board was directed to review, retrospectively, selected case studies of diet and health relationships that were relevant to dietary supplements and identified as important in the National Research Council report, Diet and Health: Implications for Chronic Disease Risk (D&H) (NRC, 1989). It was then to determine the extent to which subsequent scientific evidence from the peerreviewed literature used in published reports from the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) series (IOM, 1997, 1998, 2000a, 2001) either agreed with the preliminary evidence used to support the relationship identified originally in the 1989 review or significantly modified the original hypotheses and preliminary conclusions. The committee's analysis was to include characteristics of research with apparent high probability of predicting future confirmation by new science in support of a diet and health relationship. It also was to consider characteristics of information useful to consumers that would allow them to make scientifically informed judgments about the role that a specific food component or nutrient plays in health.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Started in 1974, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) was designed to meet the special nutritional needs of low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, or postpartum women; infants; and children up to 5 years of age who have at least one nutritional risk factor. The WIC Program provides three main benefits: supplemental foods, nutrition education, and referrals to health and social services.
Since the inception of the WIC program, substantial changes in size and demographics of the population, food supply and dietary patterns, and health concerns have made it necessary to review the WIC food packages. Proposed Criteria for Selecting the WIC Food Packages proposes priority nutrients and general nutrition recommendations for the WIC program, and recommends specific changes to the WIC packages.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
In developing countries, traditional fermentation serves many purposes. It can improve the taste of an otherwise bland food, enhance the digestibility of a food that is difficult to assimilate, preserve food from degradation by noxious organisms, and increase nutritional value through the synthesis of essential amino acids and vitamins.
Although "fermented food" has a vaguely distasteful ring, bread, wine, cheese, and yogurt are all familiar fermented foods. Less familiar are gari, ogi, idli, ugba, and other relatively unstudied but important foods in some African and Asian countries. This book reports on current research to improve the safety and nutrition of these foods through an elucidation of the microorganisms and mechanisms involved in their production. Also included are recommendations for needed research.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety
This lively book examines recent trends in animal product consumption and diet; reviews industry efforts, policies, and programs aimed at improving the nutritional attributes of animal products; and offers suggestions for further research. In addition, the volume reviews dietary and health recommendations from major health organizations and notes specific target levels for nutrients.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety
This book reviews the scientific basis for nutrition risk criteria used to establish eligibility for participation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The volume also examines the specific segments of the WIC population at risk for each criterion, identifies gaps in the scientific knowledge base, formulates recommendations regarding appropriate criteria, and where applicable, recommends values for determining who is at risk for each criterion. Recommendations for program action and research are made to strengthen the validity of nutrition risk criteria used in the WIC program.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
It is a commonly held belief that athletes, particularly body builders, have greater requirements for dietary protein than sedentary individuals. However, the evidence in support of this contention is controversial. This book is the latest in a series of publications designed to inform both civilian and military scientists and personnel about issues related to nutrition and military service.
Among the many other stressors they experience, soldiers face unique nutritional demands during combat. Of particular concern is the role that dietary protein might play in controlling muscle mass and strength, response to injury and infection, and cognitive performance. The first part of the book contains the committee's summary of the workshop, responses to the Army's questions, conclusions, and recommendations. The remainder of the book contains papers contributed by speakers at the workshop on such topics as, the effects of aging and hormones on regulation of muscle mass and function, alterations in protein metabolism due to the stress of injury or infection, the role of individual amino acids, the components of proteins, as neurotransmitters, hormones, and modulators of various physiological processes, and the efficacy and safety considerations associated with dietary supplements aimed at enhancing performance.
Topics: Agriculture » Animal Health and Nutrition | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
This volume is the newest release in the authoritative series issued by the National Academy of Sciences on dietary reference intakes (DRIs). This series provides recommended intakes, such as Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs), for use in planning nutritionally adequate diets for individuals based on age and gender. In addition, a new reference intake, the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL), has also been established to assist an individual in knowing how much is "too much" of a nutrient.
Based on the Institute of Medicine's review of the scientific literature regarding dietary micronutrients, recommendations have been formulated regarding vitamins A and K, iron, iodine, chromium, copper, manganese, molybdenum, zinc, and other potentially beneficial trace elements such as boron to determine the roles, if any, they play in health. The book also:
This book will be important to professionals in nutrition research and education.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
The current situation regarding labeling and defining dietary fiber in the United States and many other countries is arbitrary due to its reliance on analytical methods as opposed to an accurate definition that includes its role in health. Without an accurate definition, compounds can be designed or isolated and concentrated using the currently available methods, without necessarily providing beneficial health effects. Other compounds can be developed that are nondigestible and provide beneficial health effects, yet do not meet the current U.S. definition based on analytical methods. For the above reasons, the Food and Nutrition Board, under the oversight of the Standing Committee on the Scientific Evaluation of Dietary Reference Intakes, assembled a Panel on the Definition of Dietary Fiber to develop a proposed definition(s) of dietary fiber. This Panel held three meetings and a workshop.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes
Like many other agencies of the federal government, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) relies extensively on external advisory committees for independent scientific and technical advice.
Recognizing that the existing advisory committee system is essentially sound, this volume recommends ways of enhancing the use of these committees in the evaluation of drugs, biological materials, and medical devices; strengthening the agency's management of the system; and increasing the accountability of the system to the public.
In doing so, it examines and makes recommendations on such issues as the recruitment of committee members, the FDA's management of financial conflict of interest and intellectual bias among members, and the operations and management of the advisory committee system.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
Every aspect of immune function and host defense is dependent upon a proper supply and balance of nutrients. Severe malnutrition can cause significant alteration in immune response, but even subclinical deficits may be associated with an impaired immune response, and an increased risk of infection. Infectious diseases have accounted for more off-duty days during major wars than combat wounds or nonbattle injuries. Combined stressors may reduce the normal ability of soldiers to resist pathogens, increase their susceptibility to biological warfare agents, and reduce the effectiveness of vaccines intended to protect them. There is also a concern with the inappropriate use of dietary supplements.
This book, one of a series, examines the impact of various types of stressors and the role of specific dietary nutrients in maintaining immune function of military personnel in the field. It reviews the impact of compromised nutrition status on immune function; the interaction of health, exercise, and stress (both physical and psychological) in immune function; and the role of nutritional supplements and newer biotechnology methods reported to enhance immune function.
The first part of the book contains the committee's workshop summary and evaluation of ongoing research by Army scientists on immune status in special forces troops, responses to the Army's questions, conclusions, and recommendations. The rest of the book contains papers contributed by workshop speakers, grouped under such broad topics as an introduction to what is known about immune function, the assessment of immune function, the effect of nutrition, and the relation between the many and varied stresses encountered by military personnel and their effect on health.
Topics: Health and Medicine » Military and Veterans | Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes
Eating enough food to meet nutritional needs and maintain good health and good performance in all aspects of life—both at home and on the job—is important for all of us throughout our lives. For military personnel, however, this presents a special challenge. Although soldiers typically have a number of options for eating when stationed on a base, in the field during missions their meals come in the form of operational rations. Unfortunately, military personnel in training and field operations often do not eat their rations in the amounts needed to ensure that they meet their energy and nutrient requirements and consequently lose weight and potentially risk loss of effectiveness both in physical and cognitive performance. This book contains 20 chapters by military and nonmilitary scientists from such fields as food science, food marketing and engineering, nutrition, physiology, psychology, and various medical specialties. Although described within a context of military tasks, the committee's conclusions and recommendations have wide-reaching implications for people who find that job-related stress changes their eating habits.
Topics: Health and Medicine » Military and Veterans | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Diet and Health examines the many complex issues concerning diet and its role in increasing or decreasing the risk of chronic disease. It proposes dietary recommendations for reducing the risk of the major diseases and causes of death today: atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (including heart attack and stroke), cancer, high blood pressure, obesity, osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus, liver disease, and dental caries.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Cancer
Health care professionals can turn to this handy, practical guide for help in smoothly integrating maternal nutritional care into their practices. Nutrition During Pregnancy and Lactation provides physicians, nurses, primary care providers, and midwives with a ready-made, step-by-step program for helping new mothers. Providing background details, resource lists, and a "toolbox" of materials, this implementation guide makes nutritional care simple and straightforward.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Women's Health
Just how accurately can adequate nutrient intake be measured? Do food consumption surveys really reflect the national diet? This book includes a brief history of dietary surveys, and an analysis of the basis of dietary evaluation and its relationship to recommended dietary allowances. A discussion of how usual dietary intake may be estimated from survey data, a recommended approach to dietary analysis, and an application of the analysis method is presented. Further, an examination of the impact of technical errors, the results of confidence interval calculations, and a summary of the subcommittee's recommendations conclude the volume.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is formulating risk assessments to identify important foodborne hazards; evaluate potential strategies to prevent, reduce, or eliminate those hazards; assess the effects of different mitigation strategies; and identify research needs. These risk assessments, in brief, empirically characterize the determinants of the presence or level of microbial contamination in vulnerable foodstuffs at various points leading up to consumption.
One of the initial efforts in the undertaking is a risk assessment of the public health impact of E. coli O157:H7 in ground beef. In addition to soliciting public input, FSIS asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a committee of experts to review the draft and offer recommendations and suggestions for consideration as the agency finalizes the document. This report presents the results of that review.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety | Health and Medicine » Public Health and Prevention
Nutrition Labeling offers a thorough examination of current nutrition labeling practices and recommends ways to make food labeling information consistent with recent dietary recommendations from the U.S. Surgeon General and the National Research Council.
The volume proposes implementing a food labeling reform program, addressing such key issues as requiring mandatory nutrition labeling on most packaged foods, expanding nutrition labeling to foods that do not currently provide this information, making federal requirements uniform between agencies, and updating the nutrient content and format of food labels.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
How safe is our food supply? Each year the media report what appears to be growing concern related to illness caused by the food consumed by Americans. These food borne illnesses are caused by pathogenic microorganisms, pesticide residues, and food additives. Recent actions taken at the federal, state, and local levels in response to the increase in reported incidences of food borne illnesses point to the need to evaluate the food safety system in the United States. This book assesses the effectiveness of the current food safety system and provides recommendations on changes needed to ensure an effective science-based food safety system. Ensuring Safe Food discusses such important issues as:
What are the primary hazards associated with the food supply? What gaps exist in the current system for ensuring a safe food supply? What effects do trends in food consumption have on food safety? What is the impact of food preparation and handling practices in the home, in food services, or in production operations on the risk of food borne illnesses? What organizational changes in responsibility or oversight could be made to increase the effectiveness of the food safety system in the United States?
Current concerns associated with microbiological, chemical, and physical hazards in the food supply are discussed. The book also considers how changes in technology and food processing might introduce new risks. Recommendations are made on steps for developing a coordinated, unified system for food safety. The book also highlights areas that need additional study. Ensuring Safe Food will be important for policymakers, food trade professionals, food producers, food processors, food researchers, public health professionals, and consumers.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety | Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
This series of individually authored chapters examines the nature and extent of scientific advances in the nutrition sciences and describes both future opportunities in the field and barriers to progress. Despite concern about declining attention to nutrition in universities and medical schools, the authors offer a bright and challenging future in nutrition research and training that should generate enthusiasm among young researchers and teachers for this indispensable component of biology.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
This volume examines the current state of knowledge concerning the influence of a hot environment on nutrient requirements of military personnel. A parallel concern is ensuring that performance does not decline as a result of inadequate nutrition.
The committee provides a thorough review of the literature in this area and interprets the diverse data in terms of military applications. In addition to a focus on specific nutrient needs in hot climates, the committee considers factors that might change food intake patterns and therefore overall calories. Although concern for adequate nutrition for U.S. soldiers in Saudi Arabia prompted the initiation of this project, its scope includes the nutrient needs of individuals who may be actively working in both hot-dry and hot-moist climates.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
According to surveys, the public believes the chickens it is buying are wholesome. Poultry Inspection: The Basis for a Risk-Assessment Approach looks at current inspection procedures to determine how effective the Food Safety Inspection Service is in finding dangerous levels of contaminants and disease-producing microorganisms.
The book first describes the history behind the current system, noting that the amount of poultry inspected has increased dramatically while techniques and regulations have remained constant since 1968. The steps involved in an inspection are then described, followed by a discussion of alternative and innovative inspection procedures. It then provides a risk-assessment model for poultry, including submodels for each stage of processing. Risk assessment is used to protect health, establish priorities, identify problems, and set acceptable levels of risk. The model is applied both to microbiological hazards and to chemical contaminants.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety
Thanks to increased knowledge about nutrition, many threats to human health have been curbed. But there is much more to be learned. This new volume identifies the most promising opportunities for further progress in basic and clinical research in the biological sciences, food science and technology, and public health.
The committee identifies cross-cutting themes as frameworks for investigation and offers a history of nutrition and food science research with nine case studies of accomplishments.
The core of the volume identifies research opportunities in areas likely to provide the biggest payoffs in enhancing individual and public health. The volume highlights the importance of technology and instrumentation and covers the spectrum from the effects of neurotransmitters on food selection to the impact of federal food programs on public health. The book also explores the training of nutrition and food scientists.
This comprehensive resource will be indispensable to investigators, administrators, and funding decisionmakers in government and industry as well as faculty, students, and interested individuals.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Since 1941, Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) has been recognized as the most authoritative source of information on nutrient levels for healthy people. Since publication of the 10th edition in 1989, there has been rising awareness of the impact of nutrition on chronic disease. In light of new research findings and a growing public focus on nutrition and health, the expert panel responsible for formulation RDAs reviewed and expanded its approach—the result: Dietary Reference Intakes.
This new series of references greatly extends the scope and application of previous nutrient guidelines. For each nutrient the book presents what is known about how the nutrient functions in the human body, what the best method is to determine its requirements, which factors (caffeine or exercise, for example) may affect how it works, and how the nutrient may be related to chronic disease.
This volume of the series presents information about thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, folate, vitamin B12, pantothenic acid, biotin, and choline.
Based on analysis of nutrient metabolism in humans and data on intakes in the U.S. population, the committee recommends intakes for each age group—from the first days of life through childhood, sexual maturity, midlife, and the later years. Recommendations for pregnancy and lactation also are made, and the book identifies when intake of a nutrient may be too much. Representing a new paradigm for the nutrition community, Dietary Reference Intakes encompasses:
This new framework encompasses both essential nutrients and other food components thought to pay a role in health, such as dietary fiber. It incorporates functional endpoints and examines the relationship between dose and response in determining adequacy and the hazards of excess intake for each nutrient.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes | Biology and Life Sciences » Laboratory Animal Research
This book summarizes information related to public health measures on the prevention, detection, and management of iron deficiency anemia. It presents draft guidelines and recommendations related to this area, as applicable in primary health care and public health clinic settings, and it formulates recommendations for research. This volume is intended both to provide a common frame of reference for health professionals in preventing and treating iron deficiency anemia and to enable the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prepare national guidelines and recommendations for the prevention and control of iron deficiency anemia.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
The rapid expansion of international trade has brought to the fore issues of conflicting national regulations in the area of plant, animal, and human health. These problems include the concern that regulations designed to protect health can also be used for protection of domestic producers against international competition. At a time when progressive tariff reform has opened up markets and facilitated trade, in part responding to consumer demands for access to a wide choice of products and services at reasonable prices, closer scrutiny of regulatory measures has become increasingly important. At the same time, there are clear differences among countries and cultures as to the types of risk citizens are willing to accept. The activities of this conference were based on the premise that risk analyses (i.e., risk assessment, management, and communication) are not exclusively the domain of the biological and natural sciences; the social sciences play a prominent role in describing how people in different contexts perceive and respond to risks. Any effort to manage sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues in international trade must integrate all the sciences to develop practices for risk assessment, management, and communication that recognize international diversity in culture, experience, and institutions.
Uniform international standards can help, but no such norms are likely to be acceptable to all countries. Political and administrative structures also differ, causing differences in approaches and outcomes even when basic aims are compatible. Clearly there is considerable room for confusion and mistrust. The issue is how to balance the individual regulatory needs and approaches of countries with the goal of promoting freer trade. This issue arises not only for SPS standards but also in regard to regulations that affect other areas such as environmental quality, working conditions, and the exercise of intellectual property rights.
This conference focused on these issues in the specific area of SPS measures. This area includes provisions to protect plant and animal health and life and, more generally, the environment, and regulations that protect humans from foodborne risks. The Society for Risk Analysis defines a risk as the potential for realization of unwanted, adverse consequences to human life, health, property, or the environment; estimation of risk is usually based on the expected value of the conditional probability of the event occurring times the consequence of the event given that it has occurred.
The task of this conference and of this report was to elucidate the place of science, culture, politics, and economics in the design and implementation of SPS measures and in their international management. The goal was to explore the critical roles and the limitations of the biological and natural sciences and the social sciences, such as economics, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and political science in the management of SPS issues and in judging whether particular SPS measures create unacceptable barriers to international trade. The conference's objective also was to consider the elements that would compose a multidisciplinary analytical framework for SPS decision making and needs for future research.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety | Health and Medicine » Global Health
This book has become the accepted source of nutrient allowances for healthy people. Organized by nutrient, the volume reviews the function of each nutrient in the human body, sources of supply, effects of deficiencies and excessive intakes, and the latest relevant study results. It concludes with the invaluable "Summary Table of Recommended Dietary Allowances."
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes
Concern about health effects from exposure to pesticides in foods is growing as scientists learn more about the toxic properties of pesticides. The Delaney Clause, a provision of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, prohibits tolerances for any pesticide that causes cancer in test animals or in humans if the pesticide concentrates in processed food or feeds. This volume examines the impacts of the Delaney Clause on agricultural innovation and on the public's dietary exposure to potentially carcinogenic pesticide residues. Four regulatory scenarios are described to illustrate the effects of varying approaches to managing oncogenic pesticide residues in food.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety
Scientific Criteria to Ensure Safe Food lays the groundwork for creating new regulations that are consistent, reliable, and ensure the best protection for the health of American consumers. This book addresses the biggest concerns in food safety—including microbial disease surveillance plans, tools for establishing food safety criteria, and issues specific to meat, dairy, poultry, seafood, and produce. It provides a candid analysis of the problems with the current system, and outlines the major components of the task at hand: creating workable, streamlined food safety standards and practices.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations | Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety
This volume is the newest release in the authoritative series of quantitative estimates of nutrient intakes to be used for planning and assessing diets for healthy people. Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) is the newest framework for an expanded approach developed by U.S. and Canadian scientists.
This book discusses in detail the role of vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and the carotenoids in human physiology and health. For each nutrient the committee presents what is known about how it functions in the human body, which factors may affect how it works, and how the nutrient may be related to chronic disease.
Dietary Reference Intakes provides reference intakes, such as Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs), for use in planning nutritionally adequate diets for different groups based on age and gender, along with a new reference intake, the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL), designed to assist an individual in knowing how much is "too much" of a nutrient.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Since 1941, Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) has been recognized as the most authoritative source of information on nutrient levels for healthy people. Since publication of the 10th edition in 1989, there has been rising awareness of the impact of nutrition on chronic disease. In light of new research findings and a growing public focus on nutrition and health, the expert panel responsible for formulation RDAs reviewed and expanded its approach—the result: Dietary Reference Intakes.
This new series of references greatly extends the scope and application of previous nutrient guidelines. For each nutrient the book presents what is known about how the nutrient functions in the human body, what the best method is to determine its requirements, which factors (caffeine or exercise, for example) may affect how it works, and how the nutrient may be related to chronic disease.
The first volume of Dietary Reference Intakes includes calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin D, and fluoride. The second book in the series presents information about thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, folate, vitamin B12, pantothenic acid, biotin, and choline.
Based on analysis of nutrient metabolism in humans and data on intakes in the U.S. population, the committee recommends intakes for each age group—from the first days of life through childhood, sexual maturity, midlife, and the later years. Recommendations for pregnancy and lactation also are made, and the book identifies when intake of a nutrient may be too much. Representing a new paradigm for the nutrition community, Dietary Reference Intakes encompasses:
This new framework encompasses both essential nutrients and other food components thought to pay a role in health, such as dietary fiber. It incorporates functional endpoints and examines the relationship between dose and response in determining adequacy and the hazards of excess intake for each nutrient.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Nutrition - Dietary Reference Intakes | Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
In Part I of Nutrition During Pregnancy, the authors call for revisions in recommended weight gains for pregnant women. They explore relationships between weight gain during pregnancy and a variety of factors (e.g., the mother's weight for height before pregnancy) and places this in the context of the health of the infant and the mother. They present specific target ranges for weight gain during pregnancy and guidelines for proper measurement.
Part II addresses vitamin and mineral supplementation during pregnancy, examining the adequacy of diet in meeting nutrient needs during pregnancy and recommending specific amounts of supplements for special circumstances. It also covers the effects of caffeine, alcohol, cigarette, marijuana, and cocaine use and presents specific research recommendations.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 (NLEA) changed the existing regulatory framework for food labeling requirements that was shared among federal, state, and local levels of government. In addition to creating a system of mandatory nutrition labeling for foods, NLEA provided a schedule for the preemption of state and local labeling requirements that were not identical to federal provisions. Six provisions were not to be preempted until a study on the adequacy of the federal implementation of those provisions was completed.
Food Labeling is the result of that study. It presents recommendations concerning the Food and Drug Administration's implementation of the six provisions that were studied, suggestions for the future disposition of relevant state and local food labeling requirements, and views on the continuing importance of the working relationship among the various levels of government in assuring that consumers are protected from misleading label information.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
This book focuses on nutrition services beginning in the preconceptional period and extending well beyond birth. It provides the rationale for the recommended nutritional services; briefly describes the necessary elements of these services; and indicates the personnel, knowledge, skills, and specialized education or training that may be needed to deliver them.
It will be useful to policymakers, hospital administrators, directors of health centers, physicians in private or group practices, and others responsible for setting such standards and for overseeing health care services for expectant and new mothers and their infants.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
The physiological or psychological stresses that employees bring to their workplace affect not only their own performance but that of their co-workers and others. These stresses are often compounded by those of the job itself. Medical personnel, firefighters, police, and military personnel in combat settings—among others—experience highly unpredictable timing and types of stressors.
This book reviews and comments on the performance-enhancing potential of specific food components. It reflects the views of military and non-military scientists from such fields as neuroscience, nutrition, physiology, various medical specialties, and performance psychology on the most up-to-date research available on physical and mental performance enhancement in stressful conditions. Although placed within the context of military tasks, the volume will have wide-reaching implications for individuals in any job setting.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
The safety and quality of the U.S. food supply depend on a total program of careful microbiological control. Microbiological criteria, which establish acceptable levels of microorganisms in foods and food ingredients, are an essential part of such a program. Says ASM News, "This book provides not only an informed and objective evaluation of microbiological criteria for a wide variety of foods and specific pathogens and the committee's recommendations regarding those criteria, but it also provides an excellent reference book on the applied microbiological aspects of food quality assurance."
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Policy, Reviews and Evaluations
The latest of a series of publications based on workshops sponsored by the Committee on Military Nutrition Research, this book's focus on emerging technologies for nutrition research arose from a concern among scientists at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine that traditional nutrition research, using standard techniques, centered more on complex issues of the maintenance or enhancement of performance, and might not be sufficiently substantive either to measure changes in performance or to predict the effects on performance of stresses soldiers commonly experience in operational environments. The committee's task was to identify and evaluate new technologies to determine whether they could help resolve important issues in military nutrition research. The book contains the committee's summary and recommendations as well as individually authored chapters based on presentations at a 1995 workshop. Other chapters cover techniques of body composition assessment, tracer techniques for the study of metabolism, ambulatory techniques for the determination of energy expenditure, molecular and cellular approaches to nutrition, the assessment of immune function, and functional and behavioral measures of nutritional status.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Military and Veterans
This friendly, easy-to-read guide presents the National Research Council's nine-point dietary plan to reduce the risk of diet-related chronic disease. A "how-to" section provides tips on shopping (how to read food labels), cooking (how to turn a high-fat dish into a low-fat one), and eating out (how to read a menu with nutrition in mind).
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health
Based on a thorough review of the scientific evidence, this book provides the most authoritative assessment yet of the relationship between dietary and nutritional factors and the incidence of cancer. It provides interim dietary guidelines that are likely to reduce the risk of cancer as well as ensure good nutrition.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Cancer
Can Americans continue to add more seafood to their diets without fear of illness or even death? Seafood-caused health problems are not widespread, but consumers are at risk from seafood-borne microbes and toxins—with consequences that can range from mild enteritis to fatal illness.
At a time when legislators and consumer groups are seeking a sound regulatory approach, Seafood Safety presents a comprehensive set of practical recommendations for ensuring the safety of the seafood supply.
This volume presents the first-ever overview of the field, covering seafood consumption patterns, where and how seafood contamination occurs, and the effectiveness of regulation.
A wealth of technical information is presented on the sources of contamination—microbes, natural toxins, and chemical pollutants—and their effects on human health. The volume evaluates methods used for risk assessment and inspection sampling.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Production and Safety
This report from the Committee on Military Nutrition Research reviews the history of caffeine usage, the metabolism of caffeine, and its physiological effects. The effects of caffeine on physical performance, cognitive function and alertness, and alleviation of sleep deprivation impairments are discussed in light of recent scientific literature. The impact of caffeine consumption on various aspects of health, including cardiovascular disease, reproduction, bone mineral density, and fluid homeostasis are reviewed. The behavioral effects of caffeine are also discussed, including the effect of caffeine on reaction to stress, withdrawal effects, and detrimental effects of high intakes. The amounts of caffeine found to enhance vigilance and reaction time consistently are reviewed and recommendations are made with respect to amounts of caffeine appropriate for maintaining alertness of military personnel during field operations. Recommendations are also provided on the need for appropriate labeling of caffeine-containing supplements, and education of military personnel on the use of these supplements. A brief review of some alternatives to caffeine is also provided.
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Transportation and Infrastructure » Vehicles and Equipment
Topics: Food and Nutrition » Diet and Health | Health and Medicine » Children's Health