Food And Nutrition

It’s an honor to serve as USDA’s first director of nutrition security and health equity at the Food and Nutrition Service. In this role I have the privilege of working to ensure all Americans have consistent access to safe, healthy, and affordable foods essential to optimal health and well-being.

USDA wishes you a happy National Asparagus Day! Americans consume over 500 million pounds of asparagus each year, and 80-90% of that is imported, mainly from Mexico and Peru. While domestic production continues to decline year-by-year, per capita consumption is growing and U.S. growers still produce 60-70 million pounds per year, mostly in Michigan, California, and Washington.

Do you enjoy exploring food from countries around the world? Celebrating cultural traditions through food is a great way to connect with people from various communities and learn about their heritage. It is also a way to appreciate your own cultural roots! Discover simple ways to enjoy three cultural foods and see what vitamins and minerals they contain using FoodData Central from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

There are few things that worry a parent more than their children’s health and safety. The ongoing infant formula shortage due to supply chain issues, which worsened due to a major formula recall in February, has left many caregivers feeling concerned and anxious about their options for safely feeding their infants.

It’s the age-old question – how to get children to eat more fruit? We all know the benefits of a diet that’s rich in fruit. At least adults do. Convincing children to add more fruit to their diet is another challenge. The food nutrition experts at the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands enticed their school children to eat more fruit by serving fruit smoothies.

Every five years, USDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services partner to provide the latest, science-based nutrition guidance to empower Americans to make dietary choices that will improve their health and lifestyles. These guidelines are a cornerstone of federal nutrition policy, which we are leveraging to promote and elevate nutrition security. Poor nutrition is a leading cause of illness in the U.S. and by focusing on the quality of what we eat, we can help reduce diet-related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease that impact historically underserved and marginalized communities.

Making varsity, attending prom, getting into college or finding a job upon graduation … all things that many high school students spend time thinking about. We’d wager that very few of them also spend time thinking about where their food comes from, how nutritious it is, or how it got to their plate. Unless, that is, they happen to be a student at William Penn High School in New Castle, Delaware.

As National Nutrition Month comes to an end, remember that healthy eating is a year-round endeavor. Nutrition.gov is here to help you continue celebrating with your favorite healthy foods and traditions! Explore these simple ideas for adding nutritious and cultural foods into your eating routine.

Lead is a naturally occurring heavy metal found in the soil, water, and air. It is also a toxic substance that can affect brain and kidney function and pregnancy outcomes. Robust international food safety standards help all nations to reduce toxic lead exposure. In 2021, the U.S. Codex Office (USCO) worked with the international food standards setting body (Codex Alimentarius) to develop science-based food standards. One area they focused on was reducing lead contamination in food.

The National School Lunch Program provides nutritious meals to about 30 million children daily in the U.S. Such success would not have been possible without the early efforts and continuing contributions of women. For over a century, women have led the way in starting programs that provide healthy foods to children from underserved communities. And what started as local efforts have grown into staple, federal programs.