By monitoring and examining food consumption trends, public health professionals and others can assess the dietary health of Americans and identify the direction eating patterns are headed. A comparison of ERS’s loss-adjusted food availability data to recommendations in the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans reveals that while the American diet has improved in some ways, many people still fall short of targets for some food groups and over-indulge in others. In 2014, Americans, on average, were above the Guidelines’ recommendations for added fats and oils, added sugar and sweeteners, protein foods, and grains, and below the recommendations for vegetables, dairy products, and fruit.
Consumption of Fruit, Vegetables, and Dairy Products Below Recommended Amounts
The Guidelines’ recommendations are expressed in cup- or ounce-equivalents. Since people consume foods in various forms (canned, dried, juice, etc.), foods are not equal in terms of what counts as a cup- or an ounce-equivalent. Some foods are more concentrated and others contain more water. For example, a cup of cooked spinach and 2 cups of fresh spinach both equal a 1 cup-equivalent of vegetables.
A recent ERS report converted loss-adjusted food availability data from 1970 to 2014 to daily cup equivalents (informally, servings) to see how average U.S. consumption has changed over the last four decades and how it compares with the Guidelines’ recommendations. The report updates a 2008 ERS report that looked at dietary trends over 1970 to 2005. Loss-adjusted data are derived from the supply of food available for consumption and adjusted for inedible peels and pits and for spoilage, plate waste, and other losses to more closely approximate actual intake, or consumption.
Source: To read the rest of the story, please go to: Amber Waves / USDA ERS
