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 understanding of the various factors contributing to the prevention of diet-related diseases and disparities.
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
NIFA recognizes that nutrition could be one of the most cost-effective approaches to address many of the societal and economic challenges faced across the globe today. NIFA’s nutrition efforts are grounded in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, and other federal food and nutrition guidelines and priorities including The President’s Make America Healthy Again initiative. NIFA partners with the Land-grant University System and government, private, and nonprofit organizations to support science to advance 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. The agency also invests in developing nutrition scientists across all stages of professional development and building their capacity to work across disciplines and entities to advance nutritional sciences research, policy, and practice.
Relevant NIFA Programs
- Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI)
- Foundational and Applied Science Program
- Food Safety, Nutrition, and Health (FSNH) program area
- A1343 Food and Human Health
- A1344 Diet, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases
- A1364 Innovations in Food Manufacturing Technologies
- Food Safety, Nutrition, and Health (FSNH) program area
- Crosscutting Programs
- A1541 Data Science for Food and Agricultural Systems (DSFAS)
- A1701 Critical Agricultural Research and Extension (CARE)
- A1712 Rapid Response to Weather Events Across Food and Agricultural Systems
- A1713 Rapid Response to Emerging and Re-emerging Pest and Disease Events Across Food and Agricultural Systems
- A1811 Commodity Board Co-Funding Topics
- Education and Workforce Development
- A7101 Predoctoral Fellowships
- A7201 Postdoctoral Fellowships
- A7401 Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduate
- A7501 Professional Development for Agricultural Literacy
- A7601 Agricultural Workforce Training Grants
- A7801 Food and Agricultural Non-formal Education
- A9201 Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS)
- Non-AFRI 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
- Children, Youth and Families at Risk (CYFAR)
- CYFAR 4-H Military Partnership Professional Development & Technical Assistance (CMPC-PDTA)
- Community Food Projects (CFP) Competitive Grants Program
- Expanded Food Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP)
- Equipment Grants
- Federally-Recognized Tribes Extension Program
- Food and Agricultural Sciences National Needs Graduate and Postgraduate Fellowship (NNF) Grants Program
- Food and Agriculture Service Learning Program (FALSP)
- Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP)
- Higher Education Challenge Grants Program
- Higher Education Multicultural Scholars Program
- Hispanic-Serving Institutions Education Grants Program (HSI)
- Resident Instruction Grants for Institutions of Higher Education in Insular Areas (RIIA) Programs
- Resident Instruction Grants (RIIA) and Distance Education Grants (DEG) for Institutions of Higher Education in Insular Areas
- Rural Health and Safety Education Competitive Grants Program
- Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer Programs (SBIR/STTR)
- SPECA Grant Program
- Tribal Colleges Extension Grant Program
- WIC Workforce Development Initiative (WICWD)
- Foundational and Applied Science Program
Relevant Federal Collaborations
National Institutes of Health
In collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NIFA 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. This program is not currently accepted new proposals but has two active awards.
Prevention and Screening Nutrition Relevant Federal Resources
NIFA works with colleagues at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to prevent and screen for nutrition relevant risk factors during cancer prevention and treatment. 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 (HEI): NIH National Cancer Institute and the 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
As part of a broader USDA team, NIFA 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. To help advance women’s health, NIFA modified its flagship Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) to call attention for the need for women’s health research, education and Extension. Via AFRI, NIFA sponsored a women’s health-oriented workshop in fiscal year 2024.
Relevant NIFA Topic Pages
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.