08/12/03

Contacts: Lori Ferme, Bridget McManamon
800/877-1600 ext. 4802, 4769
media@eatright.org

Chicago, August 12, 2003 - In an outstanding achievement for the American Dietetic Association and all dietetics professionals, five ADA members are among the 13 nutrition and health experts named August 11 by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to the government’s new Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. They are

· Yvonne Bronner, ScD, RD, LD, professor and director of the MPH/DrPH Program at Morgan State University. Bronner has more than 20 years of experience in research, training and program development in the areas of nutrition and maternal and child health.

· Janet C. King, PhD, RD, senior scientist at Children’s Hospital Oakland (Calif.) Research Institute; professor emerita in the department of nutritional sciences and toxicology at the University of California - Berkeley; and adjunct professor in the departments of nutrition and internal medicine at the University of California - Davis.

· Penny M. Kris-Etherton, PhD, RD, distinguished professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University. Kris-Etherton has expertise in diet and coronary heart disease risk factors as well as nutritional regulation of lipoprotein and cholesterol metabolism.

· Theresa A. Nicklas, DrPH, MPH, LN, professor of pediatrics at the Baylor University Children’s Nutrition Research Center. Nicklas is an expert in cardiovascular health and nutritional epidemiology, child nutrition and health promotion and chronic disease prevention. Her work examines eating patterns of children as predictive factors for obesity in young adulthood.

· F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, M.D., M.P.H., Director, Obesity Research Center, Professor of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; Chief, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Nutrition, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, New York, N.Y.  Dr. Pi-Sunyer is an international expert in obesity and diabetes, focusing on the role of nutrition in the prevention and treatment of these increasingly prevalent diseases. 

According to the USDA and HHS, the expert committee will meet in the early fall “to review and update the most recent scientific literature in preparation for the release of the 2005 version of Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Selected for their scientific expertise related to dietary intake and health, the designees will advise HHS and USDA on any nutritional and dietary revisions necessary to the guidelines before they are republished. In addition, the designees are responsible for ensuring that the science behind the Guidelines is translated for the public in a user-friendly, easily understandable format.”

To prepare the revised Dietary Guidelines for release in 2005, committee members will examine the new Dietary Reference Intakes by the Institute of Medicine; the World Health Organization report on diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases; and other recent scientific research. The committee will recommend guideline revisions to the HHS and USDA Secretaries in a formal report, if warranted.