Harmonizing Nutritional Therapies for Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Uses of nutritional therapies for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are of tremendous interest to the lay and professional communities. This interest currently outweighs the scientific basis for deciding on a particular therapy for any given patient. Some nutritional therapies have credible reports, in peer-review journals, validating their use for some patients.

Total Usual Intake of Shortfall Nutrients Varies With Poverty Among US Adults.

Objective: To examine shortfall nutrient intakes (ie, calcium, folate, potassium, magnesium, and vitamins A, C, D, and E) by poverty-to-income ratio (PIR).

Design: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-2012, a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey.

Participants: US adults with complete data on poverty status and diet were included (n = 4,524).

Nutrition competencies in health professionals' education and training: a new paradigm.

Most health care professionals are not adequately trained to address diet and nutrition-related issues with their patients, thus missing important opportunities to ameliorate chronic diseases and improve outcomes in acute illness. In this symposium, the speakers reviewed the status of nutrition education for health care professionals in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Nutrition education is not required for educating and training physicians in many countries.

The need to advance nutrition education in the training of health care professionals and recommended research to evaluate implementation and effectiveness.

Nutrition is a recognized determinant in 3 (ie, diseases of the heart, malignant neoplasms, cerebrovascular diseases) of the top 4 leading causes of death in the United States. However, many health care providers are not adequately trained to address lifestyle recommendations that include nutrition and physical activity behaviors in a manner that could mitigate disease development or progression. This contributes to a compelling need to markedly improve nutrition education for health care professionals and to establish curricular standards and requisite nutrition and physical activity competencies in the education, training, and continuing education for health care professionals.

Nutrition education in medical school: a time of opportunity.

Undergraduate medical education has undergone significant changes in development of new curricula, new pedagogies, and new forms of assessment since the Nutrition Academic Award was launched more than a decade ago. With an emphasis on a competency-based curriculum, integrated learning, longitudinal clinical experiences, and implementation of new technology, nutrition educators have an opportunity to introduce nutrition and diet behavior-related learning experiences across the continuum of medical education. Innovative learning opportunities include bridging personal health and nutrition to community, public, and global health concerns; integrating nutrition into lifestyle medicine training; and using nutrition as a model for teaching the continuum of care and promoting interprofessional team-based care.

Nutrition and physical activity in health promotion and disease prevention: potential role for the dental profession.

Nutrition contributes to many of the leading causes of death in the United States, yet less than one-third of dental students feel competent to discuss the relationship of nutrition and systemic disease with their patients. The American Dental Association policy statements acknowledge a need for health professionals and organizations to provide continuing education to professionals and counseling to patients to combat the growing problems of overweight and obesity. Dentists can play a major role in educating patients to adopt a healthier lifestyle, including nutrition and physical activity recommendations.

Relationship between cardiovascular disease knowledge and race/ethnicity, education, and weight status.

Background: Inadequate cardiovascular disease (CVD) knowledge has been cited to account for the imperfect decline in CVD among women over the last 2 decades.

Hypothesis: Due to concerns that at-risk women might not know the leading cause of death or symptoms of a heart attack, our goal was to assess the relationship between CVD knowledge race/ethnicity, education, and body mass index (BMI).

Methods: Using a structured questionnaire, CVD knowledge, socio-demographics, risk factors, and BMI were evaluated in 681 women.

Whole versus the piecemeal approach to evaluating soy.

Soy has been singled out for attention among other legumes as a valuable source of nutrients, phytochemicals, and bioactive compounds. Early epidemiological studies established that whole soy and traditional soy foods were implicated in health-protective effects in Asian populations. The same benefits attributable to soy have not been consistently proven in Western populations that, for various reasons, opt to consume more processed soy foods or various soy components.

Identifying interdisciplinary research priorities to prevent and treat pediatric obesity in New York City.

It is well recognized that an interdisciplinary approach is essential in the development and implementation of solutions to address the current pediatric obesity epidemic. In two half-day meetings that included workshops and focus groups, faculty from diverse fields identified critically important research challenges, and gaps to childhood obesity prevention. The purpose of this white paper is to describe the iterative, interdisciplinary process that unfolded in an academic health center setting with a specific focus on underrepresented minority groups of Black and Hispanic communities, and to summarize the research challenges and gaps related to pediatric obesity that were identified in the process.

Conclusions and recommendations from the symposium, Beyond Cholesterol: Prevention and Treatment of Coronary Heart Disease with n-3 Fatty Acids.

After the symposium "Beyond Cholesterol: Prevention and Treatment of Coronary Heart Disease with n-3 Fatty Acids," faculty who presented at the conference submitted manuscripts relating to their conference topics, and these are presented in this supplement. The content of these manuscripts was reviewed, and 2 conference calls were convened. The objective was to summarize existing evidence, gaps in evidence, and future research needed to strengthen recommendations for specific intakes of n-3 fatty acids for different conditions relating to cardiovascular disease.

Micronutrient requirements of physically active women: what can we learn from iron?

The health benefits of physical activity are well established and there is increasing recognition of the importance of fitness as a key modulator of chronic disease. The impact of physical activity on micronutrient requirements is a topic of tremendous interest to the lay public, but the interest is in sharp contrast to data from well-designed studies. Research in this area is poorly controlled for nutritional status of the participants, standardized exercise protocols, markers and cutoff points for measurement of micronutrient status, and variability in subject characteristics.