The Children's
Nutrition Research Center is celebrating 30 years of improving the nutritional
health of children. Click the image for more information about
it. |
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USDA Children's Nutrition Research Center
Celebrates 30th Anniversary
By
Alfredo Flores
October 31, 2008
HOUSTON, Texas, October 31, 2008Officials with the
U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Baylor College of Medicine and
Texas Children's Hospital
will celebrate 30 years of cooperative children's nutrition research during a
ceremony here today.
Officials from the organizations will renew a long-term agreement at
the Children's
Nutrition Research Center (CNRC) here to conduct cooperative research on
obesity and other issues affecting the health of children in the United States.
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS),
an intramural scientific research agency of USDA, and Baylor College of
Medicine manage CNRC through an agreement that has allowed the center to
operate as a cooperatively run research institution.
"Research at CNRC has enabled healthcare providers and policy advisors
to make dietary recommendations that improve the health of children in the
United States and around the world," said
Caird
Rexroad, ARS associate administrator for national programs.
Also speaking at the anniversary celebration were USDA Undersecretary
for Research, Education and Economics
Gale
Buchanan, ARS Human Nutrition National Program Leader
David
Klurfeld, CNRC Director
Dennis
Bier, CNRC Director Emeritus
Buford
Nichols, Houston Mayor Bill White, and other scientists at the center.
"The CNRC has helped define the nutrient needs of children, from
newborns through adolescents, since its inception three decades ago," Rexroad
said. "Its countless research findings through the years have greatly improved
the health of today's children, and will continue to do so for generations to
come."
CNRC is one of six federally funded human nutrition research centers
in the United States and the first multi-disciplinary center to focus
exclusively on scientific investigations into the role of maternal, infant and
child nutrition in optimal health, development, and growth. Approximately 65
research scientists and 200 support staff work at the facility. CNRC
researchers have published more than 3,000 peer-reviewed scientific papers
since the center's inception in 1978.
The center includes world-class research instrumentation, including a
large, live-in metabolic unit, an energy metabolism laboratory, analytical core
laboratories, a body composition laboratory, and an eating behavior observation
laboratory.
In recent years, CNRC researchers have helped develop and field-test
an innovative program to help prevent obesity among 8- to 10-year-old
African-American girls, helped track and understand the factors that contribute
to obesity in the nation's Hispanic children and youth, and developed an
interactive body-mass index (BMI) computer tool to help parents keep their
growing children's weight on track.
They've also helped develop guidelines to help parents determine
what's best to feed their infants and toddlers, have shown that serving large
portions of energy-dense foods at meals equates to substantial extra calories
consumed by U.S. preschoolers, and have shown that mothers who drink milk at
mealtimes are more likely to serve their young daughters milk with meals,
resulting in a positive impact on the girls' milk consumption, calcium intake
and bone health.