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March is National Nutrition Month, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is shining a spotlight on the importance of good nutrition and the big impact it has on improving people’s lives and lowering the enormous costs of diet-related chronic diseases. Each year, more than a million Americans die from diet-related diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and certain forms of cancers. In 2020 alone, an estimated 800,000 people died from cardiovascular disease, an even greater number than the horrific toll of COVID-19 during that same year. And obesity, which is both a disease and a condition that increases the risk for other diet-related chronic diseases, has increased to historic levels in children and adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FDA also knows that racial and ethnic minority groups as well as those living at a lower socioeconomic level are disproportionately affected by diet-related chronic diseases. For example, more than 4 in 10 American adults have high blood pressure, but that number increases to about 6 in 10 for non-Hispanic Black adults. Additionally, American Indians and Alaska Natives are diagnosed with diabetes, primarily Type 2, at higher rates than other race-ethnicity groups.
Improving nutrition can turn the tide on the unacceptably high rates of diet-related diseases and deaths in the U.S., saving lives, improving quality of life, and reducing health care costs.
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