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ARS Home » Plains Area » Grand Forks, North Dakota » Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center » Healthy Body Weight Research » Research » Research Project #444867

Research Project: Human Obesity Prevention Research

Location: Healthy Body Weight Research

Project Number: 3062-51000-057-017-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 1, 2023
End Date: Aug 31, 2028

Objective:
This cooperative research effort will benefit the people of the United States by producing new knowledge that will significantly improve the evidence base for the national food, nutrition and health policies. It will bring together two entities, the USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the University of North Dakota (UND), each with strong scientific and technical capabilities to produce a combined effort that is unparalleled in its ability to design and conduct human clinical intervention trains addressing the knowledge gaps related to the prevention of obesity and related conditions. This research will be seminal in supporting the further development of guidelines for the diet and physical activity for Americans.

Approach:
This research will address the prevention of childhood/adult obesity, which involves food choices/patterns, engaging in physical activity and sedentary behavior, energy and energy balance, metabolism/physiology, genotype/phenotypic expression, food access/composition, attitudes/traditions, psychological stress and processes that can lead to diabetes, cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis. This demands innovative, translational research to generate new knowledge and improve the evidence base for national nutrition/health/food policy. This will be accomplished in this project by addressing the following areas: 1. Dietary and Physical Activity Guidance for Weight Loss and Maintenance. 2. Epigenetic Regulation of Obesity. 3. Food Factors, Meal Patterns, and Lipoproteins. 4. Modification of Diurnal Patterns to Promote Health in Models for Human Metabolic Dysfunction.