1 00:00:04,00 --> 00:00:08,00 Biomonitoring also gives us important information about nutrition: 2 00:00:08,00 --> 00:00:11,00 the foods we eat and how those foods affect our health. 3 00:00:11,00 --> 00:00:13,00 Remember the NHANES survey? 4 00:00:13,00 --> 00:00:17,00 In Section 2, we talked about how biomonitoring scientists use 5 00:00:17,00 --> 00:00:20,00 the NHANES survey results to gather exposure data, 6 00:00:19,00 --> 00:00:23,00 or information about the levels of chemicals in people’s bodies. 7 00:00:23,00 --> 00:00:28,00 Scientists also use NHANES results to gather data on nutritional biomarkers: 8 00:00:28,00 --> 00:00:31,00 the levels of certain nutrients in our bodies. 9 00:00:32,00 --> 00:00:33,00 CDC publishes the findings in the 10 00:00:33,00 --> 00:00:39,00 National Report on Biochemical Indicators of Diet and Nutrition in the U.S. Population. 11 00:00:39,00 --> 00:00:43,00 The first version of the report was released in 2008, 12 00:00:43,00 --> 00:00:46,00 and it included 27 nutrition biomarkers. 13 00:00:46,00 --> 00:00:50,00 The second was published in 2012 and included 58 biomarkers. 14 00:00:50,00 --> 00:00:54,00 Updates to the 2012 version occurred in 2020. 15 00:00:54,00 --> 00:00:58,00 Some of those biomarkers include fat- and water-soluble vitamins, 16 00:00:58,00 --> 00:01:01,00 iron-status indicators, and iodine. 17 00:01:02,00 --> 00:01:06,00 This information helps doctors, scientists, and public health officials find out 18 00:01:06,00 --> 00:01:09,00 if we’re getting too little or too much of certain nutrients. 19 00:01:09,00 --> 00:01:13,00 Based on biomonitoring research, public health officials make policy 20 00:01:13,00 --> 00:01:16,00 changes to help us get the nutrition we need. 21 00:01:16,00 --> 00:01:20,00 For example, folic acid is a nutrient that’s very important for 22 00:01:20,00 --> 00:01:22,00 pregnant women and infants. 23 00:01:22,00 --> 00:01:25,00 If pregnant women don’t get enough folic acid in their diet, 24 00:01:25,00 --> 00:01:28,00 their babies are more likely to develop a type of health problem 25 00:01:28,00 --> 00:01:30,00 called a neural tube defect. 26 00:01:30,00 --> 00:01:34,00 In 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 27 00:01:34,00 --> 00:01:38,00 or FDA, started requiring food manufacturers to add folic acid 28 00:01:38,00 --> 00:01:44,00 to cereals and other grain-based foods — a process called folic acid fortification. 29 00:01:44,00 --> 00:01:47,00 To see how effective folic acid fortification was, 30 00:01:47,00 --> 00:01:50,00 biomonitoring scientists developed a more accurate 31 00:01:50,00 --> 00:01:53,00 way to test blood folate levels, or the amount of folic acid 32 00:01:53,00 --> 00:01:54,00 in a person’s blood. 33 00:01:54,00 --> 00:01:58,00 The test showed that blood folate levels increased 50% 34 00:01:58,00 --> 00:02:01,00 among all race and ethnicity groups after the new policy went into effect. 35 00:02:01,00 --> 00:02:06,00 However, 20% of women of childbearing age still have less than the recommended 36 00:02:06,00 --> 00:02:09,00 amount of folate in their blood, which means their future children 37 00:02:09,00 --> 00:02:11,00 could have a higher risk of neural tube defects. 38 00:02:12,00 --> 00:02:15,00 To learn more about folic acid and folate levels, 39 00:02:14,00 --> 00:02:19,00 see the National Report on Biochemical Indicators of Diet and Nutrition 40 00:02:19,00 --> 00:02:21,00 in the U.S. Population. 41 00:02:21,00 --> 00:02:23,00 Here’s another example. 42 00:02:23,00 --> 00:02:27,00 You’ve probably heard about trans fatty acids (TFAs), 43 00:02:27,00 --> 00:02:29,00 often known as “trans fats.” 44 00:02:29,00 --> 00:02:31,00 Consuming too many TFAs may put people at a higher 45 00:02:31,00 --> 00:02:33,00 risk of developing heart disease. 46 00:02:35,00 --> 00:02:38,00 In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, 47 00:02:38,00 --> 00:02:42,00 started requiring food packaging to include TFAs on the 48 00:02:42,00 --> 00:02:44,00 Nutrition Facts labels. 49 00:02:44,00 --> 00:02:47,00 Some state and local health departments also took steps to help 50 00:02:47,00 --> 00:02:49,00 people eat less of these fats. 51 00:02:49,00 --> 00:02:52,00 They required restaurants to limit their use of TFAs, 52 00:02:52,00 --> 00:02:54,00 and launched awareness campaigns to teach people about 53 00:02:54,00 --> 00:02:57,00 the health risks associated with TFAs. 54 00:02:57,00 --> 00:03:01,00 But did all these changes lead to people consuming less TFAs? 55 00:03:01,00 --> 00:03:05,00 Biomonitoring scientists turned to the NHANES survey data to find out. 56 00:03:05,00 --> 00:03:08,00 Scientists at the Environmental Health Laboratory 57 00:03:08,00 --> 00:03:13,00 used data from the 1999–2000 and 2009–2010 NHANES 58 00:03:13,00 --> 00:03:17,00 surveys to compare TFA levels in adult Americans’ blood. 59 00:03:17,00 --> 00:03:20,00 The results showed that TFA levels dropped by 54%, 60 00:03:20,00 --> 00:03:24,00 meaning that people consumed a lot fewer TFAs after the national 61 00:03:24,00 --> 00:03:27,00 and state policies went into effect in 2006.