Read more about the HHS offices and agencies included in this section.
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Health and Wellness
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Reproductive Health
- Breastfeeding
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- Ovulation Calculator
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- Patient Materials
- Increase in breastfeeding
- Increasing women's lifespan
- Policy of inclusion of women in clinical trials
- Improvements in breast cancer screening
- Improvements in mental health care for women
- Decrease in breast cancer deaths
- Decrease in smoking rates for women
- Decrease in teen pregnancy
- Cervical cancer prevention and screening
- Decrease in HIV/AIDS deaths in women
- Federal funding to address violence against women
- Decrease in lung cancer deaths in women
- Mother-to-child transmission of HIV decreased
- Decrease in deaths from women's leading killer – heart disease
- Making birth control better, safer, and more accessible for women
- Creation of Offices on Women's Health at the federal level
- Cancer and Steroid Hormone (CASH) study
- Approval of emergency contraception
- Building better osteoporosis treatments
- Efforts to improve pregnant women's health and outcomes
- Dangerous drugs and devices for women removed from market
- Improvements in support to caregivers
- Improvements in older women's health
- Largest women's health prevention study ever – Women's Health Initiative
- FDA helps women and families meet their nutritional needs
- Addressing sex differences in health
- Addressing minority women's health
- Recognizing the needs of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women
- Creation of women's health information resources
- Affordable Care Act improves women's health
- 30 Achievements in Women's Health in 30 Years (1984 – 2014)
- HHS and women's health: Agency and office descriptions
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- 30 Achievements in Women's Health in 30 Years (1984 – 2014)
- FDA helps women and families meet their nutritional needs
- USDA, Changes in Eating Patterns and Diet Quality Among Working-Age Adults, 2005 - 2010
- USDA, Changes in Eating Patterns and Diet Quality Among Working-Age Adults, 2005 - 2010
- Federal Register, Tentative Determination Regarding Partially Hydrogenated Oils; Request for Comments and for Scientific Data and Information
- USDA, Americans' Food Choices at Home and Away: How Do They Compare With Recommendations?
- FDA, Questions and Answers on the New Menu and Vending Machines Nutrition Labeling Requirements
- FDA, 100 Years of Protecting and Promoting Women’s Health
- CDC, Spina Bifida and Anencephaly Before and After Folic Acid Mandate --- United States, 1995--1996 and 1999--2000
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30 Achievements in Women's Health in 30 Years (1984 – 2014)
Call the OWH HELPLINE: 1-800-994-9662
9 a.m. — 6 p.m. ET, Monday — Friday
OWH and the OWH helpline do not see patients and are unable to: diagnose your medical condition; provide treatment; prescribe medication; or refer you to specialists. The OWH helpline is a resource line. The OWH helpline does not provide medical advice.
Please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room if you are experiencing a medical emergency.FDA helps women and families meet their nutritional needs
The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) of 1990 gave FDA the authority, for the first time, to require nutrition labeling on foods. The Nutrition Facts label provides consumers with easy-to-understand, per-serving information on calories, fat, protein, sodium, cholesterol, dietary fiber, and vitamins. To help people choose heart-healthy foods, in 2003, the FDA required food labels to include trans fat content. One year later, in 2004, the Food Allergy Labeling and Consumer Protection Act also required the labeling of any food that contains peanuts, soybeans, cow's milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, and wheat.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) study found that the percentage of working-age adults using the Nutrition Facts Panel when food shopping increased to 42% in 2010, from 34% in 2007.1 Among older adults, the percentage that used the Nutrition Facts Panel increased from 51% to 57% over the same time period.2
Today, the FDA is looking at revising the food label again to help consumers make the healthiest choices. The FDA is also considering banning partially hydrogenated oil in all food products.3Also, because Americans get more than one-third of their calories outside of the home4, the 2010 Affordable Care Act requires chain restaurants to post the number of calories in each standard menu item and for vending machine companies to post calorie information with vending machines.5 The Affordable Care Act authorizes the FDA to establish standards for this information.
In addition to the Nutrition Facts label, the FDA also regulates all food coloring and additives. In 1998, the FDA required grain products to include folic acid (a B vitamin) to help prevent birth defects of the brain and spine in the developing fetus.6 Studies show that the number of neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, has dropped by 25% since then.7 Today, the FDA works with the USDA, the CDC, and NIH to produce FoodSafety.gov to help all consumers make healthy and safe food choices.
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Read more about the HHS offices and agencies included in this section.
All material contained on these pages are free of copyright restrictions and may be copied, reproduced, or duplicated without permission of the Office on Women’s Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Citation of the source is appreciated.
Page last updated: April 01, 2019.
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A federal government website managed by the Office on Women's Health in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20201
1-800-994-9662 • Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET (closed on federal holidays).
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