GDD at ASN

In June, GDD team members descended on the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA for The American Society for Nutrition's Nutrition 2018.

PI and Dean of Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy Dariush Mozaffarian presented an overview of GDD, touching on the project's scope, directions, and potential applications. Recent GDD findings show that an increase in consumption of healthy foods does not cause a decrease in consumption of unhealthy ones at the individual level. Additionally, up to 30% of diabetes- and obesity-related CVD and cancer deaths can be attributed to sugar-sweetened beverage intake alone.

Dean Mozaffarian's key takeaways? GDD currently offers the most reliable estimates of dietary intake worldwide and continuing work will highlight and address specific gaps in both data and diet.

Co-I and Assistant Professor Gitanjali Singh presented a descriptive poster on the key characteristics of GDD input surveys. She also highlighted the expansion of the current GDD into its upcoming iteration. Currently, GDD input data covers 185 countries and 97% of the world's population, with 82% of surveys being nationally-representative. 

Researcher Jennifer Onopa presented her poster on dietary data availability. Her findings show that fruits, non-starchy vegetables, sugar-sweetened beverages, total milk, unprocessed red meats, and beans/legumes were the most widely reported foods in surveys. Total energy, seafood omega-3s, fiber, sodium, and calcium took the top spots for nutrients. 

On the other hand, Jenn's poster highlighted the limited availability of other GDD factors such as added sugars, subtypes of protein, iodine, selenium, and vitamin D.

If you'd like additional information about these presentations, please contact us.