The National Nutrition Summit: History and Continued Commitment to the Nutritional Health of the U.S. Population

Abstract

Over the past several decades, great progress has been made in developing national nutrition policies and research agendas that address numerous problems faced by various segments of our population. Despite the success of these initiatives and our understanding of the importance of nutrition throughout the life cycle, ongoing nutrition-related problems have been identified and still need to be adequately addressed through research and policy. The recognition of these various issues inspired the development of an agenda for the National Nutrition Summit held in May 2000, jointly sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and of Health and Human Services. The major goal of the Summit was to forge partnerships among policy makers and program planners at the federal, state, and community levels to examine what accomplishments were made since 1969 and to identify existing gaps in the areas of food, nutrition and health. This review provides an overview of the purpose and overarching themes that emerged from the Summit, along with a review of additional resources from the Summit available on a website sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture.