title: Nutrition research to affect food and a healthy life span.
abstract: Proper nutrition offers one of the most effective and least costly ways to decrease the burden of many diseases and their associated risk factors, including obesity. Nutrition research holds the key to increasing our understanding of the causes of obesity and its related comorbidities and thus holds promise to markedly influence global health and economies. After outreach to 75 thought leaders, the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) convened a Working Group to identify the nutrition research needs whose advancement will have the greatest projected impact on the future health and well-being of global populations. ASN's Nutrition Research Needs focus on the following high priority areas: 1) variability in individual responses to diet and foods; 2) healthy growth, development, and reproduction; 3) health maintenance; 4) medical management; 5) nutrition-related behaviors; and 6) food supply/environment. ASN hopes the Nutrition Research Needs will prompt collaboration among scientists across all disciplines to advance this challenging research agenda given the high potential for translation and impact on public health. Furthermore, ASN hopes the findings from the Nutrition Research Needs will stimulate the development and adoption of new and innovative strategies that can be applied toward the prevention and treatment of nutrition-related diseases. The multidisciplinary nature of nutrition research requires stakeholders with differing areas of expertise to collaborate on multifaceted approaches to establish the evidence-based nutrition guidance and policies that will lead to better health for the global population. In addition to the identified research needs, ASN also identified 5 tools that are critical to the advancement of the Nutrition Research Needs: 1) omics, 2) bioinformatics, 3) databases, 4) biomarkers, and 5) cost-effectiveness analysis.
authors.affiliation: American Society for Nutrition, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA. sohlhorst@nutrition.org
authors.forename: Sarah D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Ohlhorst
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bier
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Klurfeld
authors.forename: Zhaoping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jonathan R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Mein
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Milner
authors.forename: A Catharine
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stover
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Konopka
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D002755:Choice Behavior; D019295:Computational Biology; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004032:Diet; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005518:Food Preferences; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D054892:Metagenome; D020380:Needs Assessment; D054647:Nutrigenomics; D052756:Nutritional Sciences; D009752:Nutritional Status; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control; D011634:Public Health; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers