Summarized in this address are the results of a number of nutritional surveys from the sixties and seventies. Nutritional problems have been identified in a number of areas that cut across all socioeconomic and racial groups, the focus being on studies in rural South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. Changes in nutrition with age and changes in nutrition of families involved in a community nutrition program are also looked at. It is argued that, while research in the past decade has brought greater understanding of the nutritional problems of the U.S. population, the same period has seen a change in the nation's eating and buying habits, with more highly processed food being consumed and more meals being eaten away from home. A major challenge for the eighties must be to ensure that these commercially prepared and processed foods are as nutritious, if not more nutritious, as the naturally occurring foods. To do this, the bioavailability of nutrients in processed foods must be assessed. Encouraging signs of progress are the FDA agreement that sodium content be placed on food labels and the guidelines proposed by USDA and HEW concerning fat, sugar, salt, and alcohol intake. (RDN)