Written and organized to be accessible to a wide range of readers, Improving America's Diet and Health explores how Americans can be persuaded to adopt healthier eating habits. Moving well beyond the "pamphlet and public service announcement" approach to dietary change, this volume investigates current eating patterns in this country, consumers' beliefs and attitudes about food and nutrition, the theory and practice of promoting healthy behaviors, and needs for further research. The core of the volume consists of strategies and actions targeted to sectors of societyâ€"government, the private sector, the health professions, the education communityâ€"that have special responsibilities for encouraging and enabling consumers to eat better. These recommendations form the basis for three principal strategies necessary to further the implementation of dietary recommendations in the United States.

During the past decade, tremendous growth has occurred in the use of nutrition symbols and rating systems designed to summarize key nutritional aspects and characteristics of food products. These symbols and the systems that underlie them have become known as front-of-package (FOP) nutrition rating systems and symbols, even though the symbols themselves can be found anywhere on the front of a food package or on a retail shelf tag. Though not regulated and inconsistent in format, content, and criteria, FOP systems and symbols have the potential to provide useful guidance to consumers as well as maximize effectiveness. As a result, Congress directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to undertake a study with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to examine and provide recommendations regarding FOP nutrition rating systems and symbols. The study was completed in two phases. Phase I focused primarily on the nutrition criteria underlying FOP systems. Phase II builds on the results of Phase I while focusing on aspects related to consumer understanding and behavior related to the development of a standardized FOP system. Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols focuses on Phase II of the study. The report addresses the potential benefits of a single, standardized front-label food guidance system regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, assesses which icons are most effective with consumer audiences, and considers the systems/icons that best promote health and how to maximize their use.

Provides a historical overview of the food habits of human beings over time, with special emphasis on American dietary habits from Columbian times through the present. Addresses food habits within the context of the relevant events, developments, and circumstances associated with each era. Introduces the reader to the essentiality of food as a source of nourishment for all living things; describes the various traditional methods of obtaining food, the characteristics of food-gathering and food-producing societies, the elements of food processing, and the universal foods and food products that have been used by human cultures across time; focuses on the early dietary patterns of the ancestors of post-Columbian North Americans; discusses factors that influence food habits; provides an in-depth characterization of contemporary American food habits; assesses the nutritional adequacy of American diets during various periods from prehistoric times up to the present; and makes predictions regarding the American diet of the future.

“Reading Richard Pillsbury’s remarkable No Foreign Food, like the grand opening of a new restaurant in one’s neighborhood, is an exciting and pleasurable event. He engagingly chronicles the amazing diversity of America’s food ways that are so central to our history and culture, but he also tells us why our eating habits are much more than mere gastronomic experiences.” Karl Raitz UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY “No Foreign Food is the only serious up-to-date treatment of American food habits that I know—a subject unaccountably neglected by most students of the American scene. In Pillsbury’s skillful hands, American food habits become more than just a set of cranky likes and dislikes, but instead a mirror to America’s larger culture. ... It is an indispensable book for any serious student of the American scene.” Pierce Lewis PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY No Foreign Food explores the evolution and transformation of the American diet from colonial times to the present. How and why did our bland colonial diet evolve into today’s restless melange of exotic foods? Why are Hoppin’ John, lutefisk, and scrapple, once so important, seldom eaten today? How has the restaurant shaped our daily menus? These and hundreds of other questions are addressed in this examination of the changing American diet.

How America Eats: A Social History of U.S. Food and Culture tells the story of America by examining American eating habits, and illustrates the many ways in which competing cultures, conquests and cuisines have helped form America's identity, and have helped define what it means to be American.

Did you know that the leading killer in America, cardiovascular disease, is directly linked to meat consumption? Or that you save more water by not eating one pound of beef than you would by not showering for a whole year? Diet for a New America simply and eloquently documents these ecological concerns and more, as well as the little-known horrors that animals experience during factory farming. Few of us are aware that the act of eating can be a powerful statement of commitment to our own well-being, and at the same time to the creation of a healthier world. In Diet for a New America, you will learn how your food choices can provide ways to enjoy life to the fullest, while making it possible that life, itself, might continue. Heeding this message is without a doubt one of the most practical, economical, and potent things you can do today to heal not only your own life, but also the ecosystem on which all life depends. Reading this book will change your life.

Diet and Health examines the many complex issues concerning diet and its role in increasing or decreasing the risk of chronic disease. It proposes dietary recommendations for reducing the risk of the major diseases and causes of death today: atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (including heart attack and stroke), cancer, high blood pressure, obesity, osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus, liver disease, and dental caries.

What foods should Americans eat to promote their health, and in what amounts? What is the scientific evidence that supports specific recommendations for dietary intake to reduce the risk of multifactorial chronic disease? These questions are critically important because dietary intake has been recognized to have a role as a key determinant of health. As the primary federal source of consistent, evidence-based information on dietary practices for optimal nutrition, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) have the promise to empower Americans to make informed decisions about what and how much they eat to improve health and reduce the risk of chronic disease. The adoption and widespread translation of the DGA requires that they be universally viewed as valid, evidence-based, and free of bias and conflicts of interest to the extent possible. However, this has not routinely been the case. A first short report meant to inform the 2020 review cycle explored how the advisory committee selection process can be improved to provide more transparency, eliminate bias, and include committee members with a range of viewpoints. This second and final report recommends changes to the DGA process to reduce and manage sources of bias and conflicts of interest, improve timely opportunities for engagement by all interested parties, enhance transparency, and strengthen the science base of the process.

Eating Right in America is a powerful critique of dietary reform in the United States from the late nineteenth-century emergence of nutritional science through the contemporary alternative food movement and campaign against obesity. Charlotte Biltekoff analyzes the discourses of dietary reform, including the writings of reformers, as well as the materials they created to bring their messages to the public. She shows that while the primary aim may be to improve health, the process of teaching people to "eat right" in the U.S. inevitably involves shaping certain kinds of subjects and citizens, and shoring up the identity and social boundaries of the ever-threatened American middle class. Without discounting the pleasures of food or the value of wellness, Biltekoff advocates a critical reappraisal of our obsession with diet as a proxy for health. Based on her understanding of the history of dietary reform, she argues that talk about "eating right" in America too often obscures structural and environmental stresses and constraints, while naturalizing the dubious redefinition of health as an individual responsibility and imperative.