Center for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities

The 21st century has brought a new set of public health challenges. Sedentary lifestyles and diets high in calorie-rich foods have produced a generation of Americans who are increasingly obese. Poor nutrition and obesity can be associated with four of the ten leading causes of death: heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancer. South Carolina currently ranks among the highest in prevalence of both obesity and physician-diagnosed diabetes in the country. Nutrition interventions, programs, and strategies are showing results in improving nutrition and health in schools, worksites, healthcare settings, and communities in South Carolina and across the nation. Research is increasingly focusing on the synergistic influences of dietary intake with other behavioral risk factors in the context of genetic, cultural and societal influences on obesity, and obesity-related conditions – especially in the minority populations most burdened with health disparities. The Center for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities in the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health was formed in 2003 to address these public health problems. The Nutrition Center aims to improve the public’s health by reducing health disparities through nutrition research. Faculty and staff at the center are dedicated to advancing research on causation, prevention and treatment of obesity and related disorders. Interdisciplinary projects include basic science, clinical research, methodological research, epidemiology, community based research, and intervention trials.