Top Things to Know: Strengthening US Food Policies and Programs to Promote Equity in Nutrition Security
Published: May 10, 2022
Prepared by Funke Ajenikoko, MPH, Senior Policy Analyst
- Nutrition security is defined as an individual or household condition of having equitable and stable availability, access, affordability, and utilization of foods and beverages that promote well-being and prevent and treat disease.
- The statement provides scientific rationale for strengthening US food policies and programs and proposes new or expanded policies and programs to promote equity in nutrition security and reduce nutrition-related chronic disease disparities. The statement also recommends expanding the USDA measure of food security to include metrics of nutrition security: availability, access, affordability, utilization, and stability of nutritious food.
- Current US nutrition-related policies and programs prioritize food security instead of nutrition security. Shifting from a narrower focus on providing food with sufficient calories to a broader focus on providing equitable and stable availability, access, affordability, and utilization of food with sufficient nutritional quality, consistent with the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans, over the life course, will ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to consume food that will prevent chronic disease.
- To achieve nutrition security, food must not only be available, accessible, and affordable but people should also be able to utilize the food. Utilization includes all steps between time of access to food to when nutrients from food are made available to be utilized by the body. This includes proper food storage, preparation, and distribution within the household.
- Nutrition security requires stability of a nutritious diet across the lifespan, ensuring all people have availability, access, affordability, and utilization of nutritious food at all ages. While current US food policies and programs help to ensure stable access to nutritious food for many individuals, there are numerous gaps within and between these programs that create barriers to nutrition stability. Achieving nutrition stability for all Americans will require more coordinated efforts across federal, state, community, and private sector programs to address these gaps and barriers.
- US nutrition-related policies and programs are critical for ensuring nutrition security in the US. Efforts are needed to improve the reach and sustainability of federal, state, and community policies and programs, while maintaining equity and dignity of participants.
- US food assistance programs vary in their capacity to meet the nutritional needs of their priority populations. However, they each provide an important opportunity to support nutrition security for a significant portion of Americans at all stages throughout the life course.
- Incentives for the charitable food system, which comprises of food banks, food pantries, and meal programs, to address nutrition has been limited by their primary metric of success: pounds of food distributed. More organizations are engaging in efforts to re-align incentives to support nutrition security and promote nutrition focused food banking.
- Nutrition security is a key social determinant of health for cardiovascular disease risk and chronic disease prevention. There are opportunities to incentivize and support health care systems and insurers to engage in efforts to address the social determinants of health with the goals of more effective primary prevention (prevention of chronic disease among those at high risk) and secondary prevention (prevention of complications among those with chronic disease).
- The COVID pandemic exposed strengths and weaknesses in existing US nutrition-related policies and programs. As the pandemic abates and emergency programs are discontinued, it remains important to continue to focus on expansion and innovation of current and new nutrition-related policies and programs that will provide consistent and equitable availability, access, affordability, and utilization of nutritious food.
Citation
Thorndike AN, Gardner CD, Bishop Kendrick K, Seligman HK, Yaroch AL, Gomes AV, Ivy KN, Scarmo S, Cotwright CJ, Schwartz MB; on behalf of the American Heart Association Advocacy Coordinating Committee. Strengthening US food policies and programs to promote equity in nutrition security: a policy statement from the American Heart Association [published online ahead of print May 10, 2022]. Circulation. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001072