Release No. 0076.96
Backgrounder

    THIRD REPORT ON NUTRITION MONITORING IN THE UNITED STATES
 
Congressional Mandate
 
The U.S. Congress has defined nutrition monitoring and related research as
"the set of activities necessary to provide timely information about the role
and status of factors that bear on the contribution that nutrition makes to
the health of the people of the United States."  The National Nutrition
Monitoring and Related Research Program (NNMRRP) was established by Congress
in the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act of 1990 (Public
Law 101-445).  In that legislation, Congress directed the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
to share responsibility for implementing the program and to "contract with a
scientific body, such as the National Academy of Sciences or the Federation of
American Societies for Experimental Biology, to interpret available data
analyses, and publish...a report on the dietary, nutritional, and
health-related status of the people of the United States and the nutritional
quality (including the nutritive and nonnutritive content) of food consumed in
the United States...at least once every five years."
 
Report Preparation
 
The Third Report on Nutrition Monitoring in the United States (TRONM) was
prepared by the Life Sciences Research Office (LSRO) of the Federation of
American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) under contract with USDA
and under the joint leadership of HHS and USDA. The first report, Nutrition
Monitoring in the United States: A Progress Report from the Joint Nutrition
Monitoring Evaluation Committee, written by HHS and USDA in 1986, and the
second report, Nutrition Monitoring in the United States: An Update Report on
Nutrition Monitoring, prepared by LSRO in 1989, summarized nutrition
monitoring information from the National Nutrition Monitoring System, the
NNMRRP's predecessor.
 
LSRO prepared the TRONM with the assistance of expert consultants with
specialities in dietary intake and food consumption patterns, food composition
and analysis, public health nutrition, community nutrition, clinical
nutrition, nutrition monitoring and surveillance research, behavioral
aspects of the interrelationships of nutrition and health, agricultural
economics, and statistics and biostatistics.  The data for the TRONM came from
surveys and surveillance systems in the interconnected Federal and State
activities that are part of the NNMRRP. 

Content
 
Major components of the NNMRRP discussed in the TRONM include:
     o nutritional status and nutrition-related health measurements;
     o food and nutrient consumption;
     o knowledge, attitudes, and behavior assessments;
     o food composition and nutrient data bases; and
     o food supply determinations.
 
                             
Report Highlights
 
     o Americans are slowly changing their eating patterns toward more
healthful diets, but a considerable gap remains between public health
recommendations and consumers' practices.
 
     o About one-third of adults and one-fifth of adolescents in the United
States are overweight.  These results represent increases in the prevalence of
overweight since the 1970's.
 
     o Despite significant progress, 20 percent of Americans still have high
serum cholesterol levels.
 
     o Hypertension remains a major public health problem in middle-aged and
elderly people. Non-Hispanic blacks have a higher age-adjusted prevalence of
hypertension than non-Hispanic whites and Mexican Americans.
 
     o Many Americans are not getting the calcium they need to maintain
optimal bone health and prevent age-related bone loss, particularly
adolescents, adult females, elderly people and non-Hispanic black males.
 
     o Less than one-third of American adults meet the recommendation to
consume five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
 
     o While the availability of food, on a per capita basis, is generally
adequate to prevent undernutrition and deficiency-related diseases, the data
show some Americans report not always getting enough to eat.  Approximately
one in 10 people living in low-income households or families experience some
degree of food insufficiency.
 
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