UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
Statement of Eric J. Hentges, Executive Director
Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services
Before the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development,
and Related Agencies
April 14, 2005
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the Subcommittee, for
allowing me this opportunity to present testimony in support of the
Administration’s budget for fiscal year 2006.
With the Nation facing significant public health issues related
to the quality of the American diet, I believe that the outcome-based efforts of
the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion are keys to promoting more
healthful eating habits and lifestyles across the Nation. Working from its
mission to improve the health of Americans by developing and promoting dietary
guidance that links scientific research to the nutrition needs of consumers, the
Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion has a critical role in how USDA meets
its strategic goal to improve the Nation’s nutrition and health.
Trends Show Need for Revised Nutrition Guidance And
Educational Tools
Recent studies of America’s dietary habits and physical activity
reveal disturbing trends. First, a combination of poor diet and sedentary
lifestyle not only undermine the quality of life, life expectancy, and
productivity, they contribute to about 20 percent of the two million annual
deaths in the United States.
Second, specific diseases and conditions, such as cardiovascular
disease, hypertension, overweight and obesity, and osteoporosis, are clearly
linked to a poor diet. Recent statistics are staggering with 64 percent of
adults (ages 20 to 74) being either overweight or obese. Children have not
escaped this unhealthy outcome. Over the past 20 years, the percentage of
children who are overweight has more than doubled from 7 to 15 percent, and the
percentage of adolescents who are overweight has more than tripled from 5 to 16
percent.
And third, the lack of physical activity has been associated
with a number of conditions, including diabetes, overweight and obesity,
cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers. Supporting evidence indicates that
about 30 percent of women and 25 percent of men get little or no exercise.
Dietary Guidelines for Americans Establish Federal Nutrition
Policy
In conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS), USDA released the sixth edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans
on January 12, 2005. USDA’s involvement is critical in helping to stem and
eventually reverse some of these disturbing trends.
The basis for Federal nutrition policy, the Guidelines, provide
advice for healthy Americans, ages 2 years and older, about food choices that
promote health and prevent disease. These Guidelines not only form Federal
nutrition policy, they also set standards for the nutrition assistance programs,
guide nutrition education programs, and are the basis for USDA nutrition
education and promotion activities. Finding Your Way to a Healthier You, which
is based on the Guidelines, is but one of many strategies that will be needed to
help consumers make smart choices from every food group, find their balance
between food and physical activity, and get the most nutrition out of their
calories.
Food Guidance System Serves as Premier Teaching Tool
The updated Food Guidance System, currently recognized as the
Food Guide Pyramid, is used to help the American public consume a healthful
diet. The goals for revising the USDA’s Food Guidance System are two-fold: To
provide the most up-to-date science and to use better implementation strategies
to help Americans develop healthier lifestyles. This new system also supports
two pillars of the President’s HealthierUS Initiative: to “Eat a Nutritious
Diet” and to “Be Physically Active Every Day.” We expect the new system to be
released later this spring.
USDA takes considerable pride in its approach to updating the
Food Guidance System by maintaining an open and transparent process that
employed the public notice and comment period in the Federal Register. Now,
strategic promotion and implementation of the Food Guidance System in both the
public and private sectors will be essential in transforming these scientific
underpinnings into actionable, targeted strategies that will motivate Americans
to develop and maintain healthful dietary and lifestyle habits.
Effective Partnerships Strengthen Dissemination Of
Science-Based Guidance and Educational Tools
With your continued support and with robust partnerships among
and between USDA agencies and other Departments, and with information
multipliers from nutritionists, physicians, corporations, and others, we are in
a much stronger position to address the problems of obesity and overweight. Over
the past year, USDA and its partners, including the scientists of the Dietary
Guidelines Advisory Committee, have updated the Nation’s nutrition guidance.
Now, with the collaborative efforts focused on how best to reach the various
populations served by our diverse agencies and Departments, I am confident that
we can begin to stem the nutrition- and health-related trends that are so
adversely affecting the American public.
I thank the Committee for the opportunity to present this
written testimony.
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