Prevention of Diet-Related Diseases and Disparities
Importance of Preventing Diet-Related Diseases and Disparities
Diet-related illnesses including cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers are the leading source of poor health in the United States. These illnesses also negatively affect worker productivity, military readiness, healthcare spending, and health disparities. Food insecurity and diet-related illnesses often co-exist. Both are interrelated with challenges and opportunities in the use of natural resources. Across all life stages, research, education, extension, and innovation could potentially improve our understanding of the various factors contributing to the prevention of diet-related diseases and disparities.
The Biden-Harris Administration hosted a historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and published a corresponding National Strategy to end hunger, improve nutrition and physical activity, and reduce diet-related diseases and disparities. USDA is integral to this strategy and has a core priority to tackle food and nutrition insecurity. The President and the First Lady’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative also aims to end cancer as we know it. To help, the USDA’s Research, Education, and Economics Mission Area created the Agricultural Science Center of Excellence for Nutrition and Diet (ASCEND) for Better Health initiative which launched its first USDA Nutrition Hub in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in partnership with Southern University and NIFA is working to add additional USDA Nutrition Hubs with an emphasis on using precision nutrition.
Precision nutrition is a new concept that aims to harness emerging findings from nutritional science into meaningful and clinically relevant dietary recommendations for individuals and population sub-groups. Nutrition science encompasses research examining multiple synergistic levels of influence: dietary habits, genetic background, health status, microbiome, metabolism, food environment, physical activity, socioeconomics, psychosocial characteristics, and environmental exposures, among others. Precision nutrition, like precision medicine, aims to capitalize on the exponential growth that is occurring in technology, genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics platforms, along with personalized and environmental sensors, and other big-data resources.
NIFA’s Impact
The USDA works to ensure a safe, nutritious, and secure food supply while also developing, delivering, and disseminating evidence-based nutrition education and promotion to prevent diet-related diseases and disparities, improve health, and advance food and nutrition security. NIFA recognizes that nutrition could be one of the most cost-effective approaches to address many of the societal, environmental, and economic challenges faced across the globe today. NIFA partners with the Land-Grant University System and government, private, and non-profit organizations to support science aiming to advance our understanding of what is in the foods and beverages we produce and how do our products best serve their final users – either humans or animals – all over the world. Our agency also invests in developing nutrition scientists across all stages of professional development and building their capacity to work across diverse disciplines and entities to advance nutritional sciences research, policy, and practice.
Key NIFA prevention of diet-related diseases and disparities programs include:
- Agricultural and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) competitive grants program A1722 USDA Nutrition Hubs: Supports projects that provide effective, translatable, and scalable approaches to advance food and nutrition security and reduce the burden of diet-related chronic diseases, especially in underserved, at-risk communities through a coordinated approach involving Extension, Education, and Research activities.
- Agricultural and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) competitive grants program A1343 Food and Human Health: Supports investigations of the nutrients and contaminants in food and their impact on the gut microbiota
- Agricultural and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) competitive grants program A1344 Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases: Supports projects that aim to improve food security and nutritional health outcomes as well as culturally and contextually appropriate approaches to prevent and control diet-related chronic diseases and corresponding disparities
- Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP): Supports the nation’s first nutrition education program for populations living below the federal poverty line and remains at the forefront of nutrition education efforts to address food and nutrition security
- Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) portfolio: Supports the implementation and evaluation of projects providing incentives to increase the purchase or procurement of more fruits and vegetables by income-eligible consumers
- Community Food Projects: Supports community-led food projects including urban agriculture
- Food and Agriculture Service Learning Program (FASLP): Supports programs that aim to increase the knowledge of agriculture and improve the nutritional health of children
- WIC Workforce Development Initiative: Works to increase cultural representation of the WIC workforce; WIC program participation among eligible populations; and WIC participant self-efficacy by providing culturally responsive care.
Additional Relevant NIFA Programs
- 4-H Youth Development Program
- 1890 Institution Teaching, Research and Extension Capacity Building Grants (CBG) Program
- Alaska Native-Serving and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions (ANNH) Competitive Education Grants Program
- Capacity Building Grants for Non-Land Grant Colleges of Agriculture Program
- Hispanic-Serving Institutions Education Grants Program (HSI)
- Resident Instruction Grants for Institutions of Higher Education in Insular Areas (RIIA) Programs
- Tribal Colleges Extension Grant Program
- Federally-Recognized Tribes Extension Program
- A1364 Novel Foods and Innovative Manufacturing Technologies
- A1531 Biorefining and Bioengineering
- A1641 Economics, Markets and Trade
- A1642 Social Implications of Food and Agricultural Technologies
- A1712 Rapid Response to Extreme Weather Events
- A1721 Extension, Education & USDA Climate Hubs Partnership
- A1741 Center for Research, Behavioral Economics, and Extension on Food Loss & Waste
- A7401 Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates
- A9201 Sustainable Agricultural Systems
- Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP)
- Children, Youth and Families at Risk (CYFAR)
- CYFAR 4-H Military Partnership Professional Development & Technical Assistance (CMPC-PDTA)
- Enhancing Agricultural Opportunities for Military Veterans (AgVets)
- Food and Agricultural Sciences National Needs Graduate and Postgraduate Fellowship (NNF) Grants Program
- Higher Education Challenge Grants Program
- Higher Education Multicultural Scholars Program
- Master Gardener Program, as well as Master Health and Master Food Preserver Programs
- National Center for Home Food Preservation
- New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE)
- Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative
- Regional Rural Development Centers
- Resident Instruction Grants (RIIA) and Distance Education Grants (DEG) for Institutions of Higher Education in Insular Areas
- Rural Health & Safety Education
- Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
- SPECA Grant Program
- Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Program
- Urban, Indoor, and Emerging Agriculture
- Women and Minorities in STEM (WAMS)
Relevant Federal Collaborations
National Institutes of Health
In collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NIFA has developed and funded innovative joint funding announcements (e.g., PAR-18-727, PAR-15-024, RFA-DK-20-007, RFA-DK-20-005) to advance our understanding of food specific molecular profiles, and biomarkers of food and nutrient intake and dietary exposure. Using a complex of “omics” methods, these findings help us better understand factors influencing inter-individual variation in response to foods and food groups recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, informing both individual and population federal precision nutrition messaging for healthier food and beverage intake.
Cancer Moonshot Federal Prevention and Screening Nutrition Relevant Resources
As part of the Biden-Harris Cancer Moonshot, NIFA works with HHS and VA colleagues to end cancer as we know it. This includes compiling and elevating relevant resources such as the following:
- NIH research priorities website has a nutrition page that includes NIH and federal partner research as it applies to nutrition.
- NIH National Cancer Institute has a Causes and Prevention resource page including a risk factor page with a diet specific section as well as a patient focused Cancer Prevention Overview.
- National Cancer Institute’s CISNET uses simulation modeling to improve the understanding of cancer control interventions in prevention, screening, and treatment.
- NIH National Cancer Institute has a Dietary Assessment Page under their research section that includes a selection of public resources and dietary assessment tools:
- Healthy Eating Index: NIH National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion have collaborated to develop the HEI to align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans
- WCRF/AICR Score: NIH National Cancer Institute, World Cancer Research Fund, and the American Institute for Cancer Research Score have collaborated to develop the WCRF/AICR Score to align with the WCRF Third Expert Report
- NIH Office of Disease Prevention’s Nutrition as Prevention for Improved Cancer Health Outcomes Pathways to Prevention Program Workshop Resources
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Prevention Research Centers, a network of 26 academic research centers that study how people and their communities can reduce the risk for chronic diseases, include research on physical activity and nutrition.
- The VA’s Corporate Data Warehouse and VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure may provide opportunities for collaboration related to screening for nutritional risk.
Federal Food as Medicine Collaborative
NIFA is a part of the HHS led Federal Food as Medicine Collaborative and has helped elevate relevant NIFA assets to support food as medicine initiative including but not limited our supports within prevention of diet-related diseases and disparities as outlined above, food and nutrition security, nutrition education, local and regional food systems, and food loss and waste, along with consultation on relevant GusNIP resources and connections.
Women’s Health
NIFA as part of a broader USDA team collaborates with federal partners including but not limited to the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Veterans Affairs on advancing women’s health research and innovation as encouraged by President Biden’s Executive Order. As part of NIFA’s women’s health efforts, NIFA has modified AFRI where possible, included a call for women’s health focus within the recent call for three additional USDA Nutrition Hubs, and is sponsoring a women’s health-oriented workshop.
Consumer Resources
Nutrition.gov is a USDA sponsored website that offers credible information to help you make healthful eating choices.
Nutrition Professional Resources
The USDA National Agricultural Library’s Food and Nutrition Information Center provides the food and nutrition professional community access to a wide range of trustworthy food and nutrition resources from both government and non-government sources. Another USDA NAL resource is the Historical Dietary Guidance Digital Collection.