Healthy Eating Research

Healthy Eating Research (HER) and the Nutrition & Obesity Policy, Research, & Evaluation Network (NOPREN) invite you and your partners to join us for the seventh annual HER NOPREN Summer Speaker Series for Students!

This bi-weekly series will feature 5 interactive webinar presentations covering a variety of topics related to food and nutrition security, federal, state, and local policy, strategies to support young children’s health, careers in public health nutrition and more. The series will conclude with a student presentation session that we encourage you also to attend!

Sessions will be held on the following Wednesdays from 4-5pm ET: June 10, June 24, July 8, July 22, August 5, and August 12, 2026. See a list of topics and register here:

2026 HER NOPREN Summer Speaker Series for Students | Healthy Eating Research May 12, 2026 | Building Evidence to Prevent Childhood Obesity | 2026 HER NOPREN Summer Speaker Series for Students

New! Based on the latest nutrition guidance from Healthy Eating Research and research from the Rudd Center, WellSCAN is a suite of digital tools aimed at helping food banks and pantries better identify and report on the nutritional quality of their inventory.

New tools include:
- A search bar to find the HER rank of specific products
- A calculator to assess rankings using nutrition info
- An inventory feature to track the nutritional quality of your offerings over time

If you are interested in implementing WellSCAN in your food pantry or food bank, visit wellscan.io and request an account.

WellSCAN - Nutrition Ranking technology for Food Banks and Food Pantries With nutrition guidance from Healthy Eating Research and research from the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health, the WellSCAN search can summarize HER rankings for common and UPC specific foods.

Policymakers and advocates, we invite you to join us on Friday, June 5th for a webinar on ultraprocessed foods.

This Healthy Eating Research webinar will present findings from the HER Expert Panel report "Ultraprocessed Foods in the U.S.: Recommended Definitions and Policies." Speakers will discuss recommended definitions of ultraprocessed foods, methods to operationalize the definitions for policy purposes, and practical policies to reduce widespread availability and consumption of UPFs.

Learn more and register: https://bit.ly/4uIz9uv

HER’s Director and Deputy Director author a new viewpoint on the 2025-30 DGAs. Takeaways for children and families: the new DGAs provide limited guidance aimed at children and adolescents, several conflicting messages that will be confusing for families, and an emphasis on personal responsibility despite food environments that may not support healthy eating.

Read more of their viewpoint, including policy actions that could help shape the food environment and improve children's health:

A Pediatric Perspective on the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines | Healthy Eating Research Building Evidence to Prevent Childhood Obesity | A Pediatric Perspective on the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines

If you work in a food bank or pantry, the Rudd Center has a variety of tools that can help you implement the HER Nutrition Guidelines.

This webinar walks through how to use these tools and integrate the HER guidelines into your programs.

Building a Strong Foundation for Food as Medicine: HER Guidelines Implementation in the Charitable Food Network Let’s celebrate National Nutrition Month by advancing Food as Medicine and strengthening health and nutrition across the charitable food network using the Healthy Eating Research (HER) Nutrition Guidelines for the Charitable Food System! Whether you work in a food bank or a food pantry setting, ou...

New! We're pleased to share this resource, developed in partnership with Public Health Communications Collaborative, that provides a snapshot of the most recent changes to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).

It includes a summary of what to eat and limit, what has changed since the 2020 recommendations, and what to do about conflicting guidance.

https://buff.ly/u80EUri

Healthy Eating Research has released new expert‑informed recommendations on how ultraprocessed foods can be defined—and what advocates and policymakers can do to reduce their availability and consumption.

The guidance brings clarity to a complex issue and supports action to improve diet quality.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/UPFdefinition

New research from Child Trends highlights the role of home visiting programs in nutrition outcomes. Through a literature scan and conversations with home visitors, they find that home visiting programs are well-positioned to address nutrition, and some do provide nutrition-related support, but it remains a promising area for impact.

Home Visiting Nutrition Insights Read Home Visiting Nutrition Insights from Child Trends.

A new narrative review identified over 400 public policies aimed at identifying products with nonsugar sweeteners (NSS) and/or reducing NSS exposure.

The authors highlight potential high-impact options, such as bans or restrictions on use, excise taxes, and front-of-package warnings and disclosures.

Learn more:

Beyond Added Sugar Reduction: A Narrative Review of Policies to Address Nonsugar Sweeteners | Healthy Eating Research Building Evidence to Prevent Childhood Obesity | Beyond Added Sugar Reduction: A Narrative Review of Policies to Address Nonsugar Sweeteners

Do front-of-package "high-in" labels work for Latino adults in the U.S.?

The FDA has considered a "high-in" label for foods high in nutrients of concern (added sugar, saturated fat, and sodium). New research compares several front-of-pack label types among Latino adults - text "high-in" labels slightly improved identification of the least healthy foods, but only among higher English proficiency participants.

Learn more:

An RCT of Front-Of-Package Nutrition Labels in Latino Populations in the U.S | Healthy Eating Research Building Evidence to Prevent Childhood Obesity | An RCT of Front-Of-Package Nutrition Labels in Latino Populations in the U.S