The Office of Nutrition Research (ONR) at the National Institutes of Health wants to build the evidence base needed to support the health and wellbeing of eaters in the United States.
The U.S. is currently in the middle of a “nutrition-related health crisis,” Andrew Bremer, Director of the ONR tells Food Tank. “Sub-optimal diets are really threatening our public health, our economy, and our national security.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 16 percent of adults in the country have diabetes, with Bremer noting that 16,000 new cases of type 2 diabetes are diagnosed each week. This—along with other diet-related diseases including heart disease and cancer—come with a cost of US$1.1 trillion, he adds.
Bremer believes this reality should spur researchers to think about science that will be “actionable and solution-focused and move the needle.” And it has to happen now, he argues. “We don’t have time to quibble about this. This is a call to action.”
Nutrition science remains complex and full of unknowns, Bremer admits, stating that it’s “challenging” to study. Unlike many variables, nutrition both affects and is affected by health and disease. “We are complex biological systems,” he says.
But within the ONR, Bremer is committed to increasing the rigor, reproducibility, and the precision of nutrition science to better understand and ultimately improve eaters’ health. He also wants to make sure that, once the research is conducted, the findings can be interpreted in a way that has impact and won’t be misleading.
Bremer sees his work as a “duty,” he tells Food Tank. “The opportunity is to provide that evidence base to then inform the food engineers, agriculture regulators, [and] policymakers so that we have nutritious food for everyone on the planet.”
Listen to the full conversation with Andrew Bremer to hear more about why Bremer advocates for a holistic approach to nutrition science, why medical schools can no longer overlook nutrition and food systems, and initiatives that can empower physicians and dietitians to work together as a team.
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Photo courtesy of Brooke Lark, Unsplash
