Healthy Eating

A recent qualitative study published in Preventing Chronic Disease explores school food service directors’ knowledge and beliefs about ultraprocessed foods in school meals. Ultraprocessed foods have been shown to make up nearly two-thirds of the calories in U.S. youths’ diets and have been linked…

Everyone deserves the opportunity to live a long, healthy, and fulfilling life. The foods we eat play an important role in both how long we live and how well we live.Medical experts and researchers are now focusing on the concept of “healthspan”- the years we spend healthy, active, and able to enjoy…

Universal School Meals programs provide free meals to all students, improving diet quality while reducing food insecurity and stigma; however, many eligible students still do not participate. In a recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, researchers examined parents’…

Federal legislation signed in July 2025 eliminated funding for SNAP-Ed, the largest public-sector nutrition and physical activity education and promotion program in the US. A new research brief from the Nutrition Policy Institute details how California local health departments, or LHDs, worked to wind-down…

Nutrition Policy Institute released three research briefs that capture how the elimination of SNAP-Ed funding as a result of H.R.1 is impacting local health departments and community organizations  as well their vision for the future of nutrition and physical activity programming. NPI …

Research Brief • July 2026 • Download PDF (106 KB)BackgroundFor over three decades, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program- Education (SNAP-Ed) improved nutrition and physical activity (PA) behaviors among low-resource populations through the combination of education and policy, systems, and…

Research Brief • July 2026 • Download PDF (148 MB)BackgroundFor over three decades, SNAP-Ed (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program- Education) worked to improve nutrition and physical activity (PA) behaviors among low-resource populations through education and policy, systems, and environmental (PSE)…

Overall child diet quality in the U.S. is low compared to national recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A recent study suggests more availability of fruits and vegetables and less availability of sugar-sweetened beverages in children's homes is associated with better dietary intakes…

Lactose-reduced infant formulas made with corn syrup became commercially available in 2000 and by 2019 were consumed by nearly 25% of US infants. However, little is known about the impact of more infants receiving milk products with added corn syrup (a sweeter sugar) instead of those with only lactose …