Nutrition Research Methods and Technology

Human nutrition research has become complex and multidisciplinary. It is apparent that the best hope for achieving any significant extension of life expectancy lies in the area of disease prevention. Diet and nutrition are major factors in preventing disease and other health problems. The economic costs of health care and disease are a large and growing burden on the nation's resources. An American public sensitive to health and nutrition is vulnerable to fads and unsupportable claims promoting various dietary substances and practices. Additional research is needed to update and expand food composition data and develop improved and inexpensive methods for determining food composition and the biological availability of nutrients. Current and comprehensive information on food composition is important for planning diets to meet nutritional requirements. Research is needed to improve methods of determining the effects of food production, processing, and preparation procedures on food composition and nutrient availability. Actions by the Departments of Agriculture and Health, Education, and Welfare to improve nutrition intelligence include efforts to speed up data collection and availability and improve the utility and quality of data obtained. The most important action taken is the jointly developed proposal for what amounts to a comprehensive system of nutrition intelligence. The proposal recognizes major problems in existing activities. However, it demonstrates a lack of specificity and agreement between departments and a lack of agreement on how an important decennial survey would be conducted. The proposal also causes concern about the role of the system in program evaluation, and the inadequacy of the coordination mechanism.