Nutrition and chronic disease prevention: priorities for US minority groups

Abstract

Persistent disparities affecting US racial/ethnic minorities present a continuing challenge within the larger picture of chronic disease prevention, in part because of the socio-political disadvantages that affect minority populations. Many of these disparities are nutrition related. Complementary approaches to identifying priorities for nutrition assessment and intervention in minority populations include: 1) a dietary perspective that considers eating patterns in relation to current dietary guidelines, and 2) a chronic disease perspective that considers dietary implications of population risk profiles. Integrating these perspectives requires additional considerations of feasibility and relative priority for the population in question.