The excessive consumption of added sugars by Americans has surpassed the recommended levels outlined in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, highlighting a pressing public health concern.The Nutrition Policy Institute at the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources submitted a public comment in response to the US Food and Drug Administration's call for strategies to reduce added sugars consumption in the United States. The comment outlines 13 recommended actions for federal agencies and four recommended actions that other stakeholders can take to minimize added sugars consumption. Additionally, NPI urged the FDA to address safety concerns around the replacement of added sugars with low- and no-calorie sweeteners, specifically among children. Federal agencies and stakeholders have ample opportunities to decrease added sugars consumption in the US. and NPI emphasized the need for action on recommendations to enhance food safety and empower consumers to make healthier choices. The public comment period was open from November 6, 2023, to January 22, 2024. All submitted comments are available to view online on Regulations.gov.

More Americans are now sick with diet-related conditions than are well. In the American Journal of Public Health's special issue on "Policies and Strategies to Increase Equitable Access to Family Nutrition," Lorrene Ritchie and Wendi Gosliner of the Nutrition Policy Institute advocate for bold action to improve the health and diets of all Americans. Their editorial entitled “Bold Action Needed for Equitable Access to Nutrition Assistance by All” along with the supporting research featured in the special issue emphasize that while federal nutrition assistance helps one in four Americans and over half of school-aged children, more needs to be done to address food and financial insecurity and improve the diet and health of Americans. Ritchie and Gosliner suggest that, “Currently the nutrition assistance programs conflate two separate issues, one involving people facing poverty with inadequate resources to secure adequate food and the other involving structural supports to the food system and societal norms that facilitate abundant access to and promotion of relatively cheap and unhealthy options, leading to poor diets being the status quo.” They recommend rethinking nutrition assistance's role in combating poverty, suggesting income and housing support, and separately, restructuring federal nutrition assistance programs to support healthy food consumption for all, like providing school meals for all K-12 students, and restructuring retail food environments to create new healthy norms. The special issue and editorial were published online on December 20, 2023.

A recent study examined how stores' participation in federal assistance programs, such as Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program— commonly known as WIC and SNAP or CalFresh in California—influence the availability and quality of healthy foods in low-income California neighborhoods. The study assessed 731 convenience stores and small markets, and found that stores enrolled in both SNAP and WIC had greater availability of healthy food options and higher quality fresh produce compared to stores participating in neither program. Further, small markets more often carried a broader selection of high-quality fresh produce than convenience stores. The study findings suggest that implementing policies incentivizing store involvement in SNAP and WIC can improve access to healthy foods for low-income individuals. The study recently published in the Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, was conducted by Nutrition Policy Institute researchers Richard Pulvera, Sridharshi Hewawitharana, Hannah Thompson, Wendi Gosliner, and Cindy Leung with the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. The authors thank the staff at the California Department of Public Health's Nutrition and Physical Activity Branch, local health department staff and participating stores, and Gail-Woodward Lopez.

The Nutrition Policy Institute at the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources is seeking to hire two Assistant or Associate Project Scientists to support our work to evaluate California's universal school meals program. The positions will conduct literature reviews and develop research questions, hypotheses and study methods; develop participant recruitment and retention protocols and protocols for IRB submission; and design and conduct collaborative research and evaluation projects, including conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis. They will facilitate state and national interactions between researchers, policymakers, and diverse community groups. The positions will write grants, research reports and peer-reviewed publications and develop science-based policy and environmental solutions to lifestyle-related health problems for diverse populations. The salaries are $71,500 to $91,000 or $87,000 to $107,600 annually. The positions are one-year renewable term appointments with possible extensions. More information about the positions and how to apply is available online. Application packets must be received by December 11, 2023, to ensure full consideration (new deadline). Questions? Contact Tatiana Avoce: tavoce@ucanr.edu. The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.