LAUSR

N UTRITION EDUCATION IS critical for low-income adults as a means to address the poor diet quality and nutritional status of this population. Diet quality is inversely associated with development and progression of chronic diseases and excess adiposity. Low-income adults have elevated rates of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and obesity, and shorter life expectancies compared with higherincome adults. Low-income adults experience lower intakes of key foods and nutrients that contribute to health, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy. Many low-income families also exceed recommended intakes of sweets, sugarsweetened beverages, snack foods, and processed meats. Low-income adults have varied levels of knowledge regarding nutrition, health, cooking skills, what constitutes a healthy diet, and would benefit from a more accurate understanding of nutrition and healthy eating to improve overall diet quality. To reduce confusion about healthy eating, experts recommend that state and federal nutrition education programs have consistent, targeted nutrition messages that align with national recommendations. Prioritizing nutrition education content and messages in a coordinated manner for large nutrition education programs is a necessary and effective strategy to increase consumption of targeted foods in low-income families. Due to multiple recommendations contained in national nutrition guidelines, however, educators may emphasize different nutrition messages to varying degrees. For example, educators may include cooking activities in each class that demonstrate how to incorporate fruits and vegetables into meals and snacks, whereas other educators may focus on teaching cup-equivalent fruit and vegetable servings. A recent study found variability in the frequency (ie, how many times a topic was included) and depth of nutrition education content (whether the topic was just mentioned or included more indepth experientially based learning activities) contained in different curricula used nationally by the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), targeting lowincome families. This report builds on these findings by identifying consistent nutrition messages that are most important to teach lowincome adults. The purpose of this study was to assemble a panel of nutrition experts to prioritize which nutrition recommendations from the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2010 DGA) were most critical to teach low-income adults to improve health and reduce the development of diet-related chronic diseases. A prioritized set of nutrition recommendations across EFNEP programs will guide the development of curricula and evaluation tools to assess the effectiveness of EFNEP on a national level. The use of prioritized nutrition messages may strengthen this nutrition education program through the use of consistent nutrition content across the country.