ODPHP Director

There is abundant evidence that good nutrition is imperative to overall physical health, supports disease prevention, and offers cognitive benefits too. But when it comes to our overall mental and emotional health or our sense of well-being, what specific outcomes can we expect from good nutrition? And what negative effects can we expect from inadequate nutrition? These questions are just a few of many being asked by the Food and Mood Project — an initiative led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).

It’s my pleasure to introduce another entry in our quarterly vlog series, where we engage with partners in the public and private sectors to discuss the ways in which we can collaborate to advance our collective mission to promote greater health equity and well-being for all people. As part of our November observance of Veterans Day,  I joined Dr. Ernest Moy, Executive Director of the Office of Health Equity at the Veterans Health Administration, to discuss the unique health challenges and disparities that our Veterans population faces, and what is being done to address them.

In observance of Healthy Aging Month, Patricia D’Antonio, Executive Director for the National Center to Reframe Aging recently joined ODPHP Director Paul Reed for a discussion on the myriad ways we encounter, and even perpetuate, ageism in our everyday lives, and the importance of dispelling negative public perceptions of older adulthood and revisiting aging as not something that we “arrive at”, but rather a continuous process that we experience throughout our lifecycle.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (the Guidelines) provides advice on what to eat and drink to meet nutrient needs, promote health, and prevent disease. To ensure the Guidelines continues to meet the health needs of all, we who support the development process earnestly ask for participation and feedback from those in the fields of nutrition and public health, and – just as importantly – the public at large.