There's a good-news, bad-news tale in the nutrition-related health status of this country, according to a federal report released this week. The good news is that levels of cholesterol -- a major risk factor for coronary heart disease -- are steadily declining among adults. The bad news is that obesity is increasing significantly among children and adults, hypertension remains a serious problem for middle-age and elderly people, less than one-third of American adults are eating enough fruits and vegetables, and 9 percent to 13 percent of low-income families are going hungry. These are just a few of the findings of the "Third Report on Nutrition Monitoring in the United States," prepared for the U.S. Department of Agriculture by the Life Sciences Research Office of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. "The report, which is based on national surveys, is valuable in that it allows us to look at dietary and nutritional trends over time," says Kathryn Dewey, a UC Davis nutrition professor, who served as an expert consultant for the report. In addition to sketching a nutritional profile of the nation, information provided by this and succeeding reports will help policy-makers evaluate the effectiveness of various health and nutrition education programs, she says.