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Point-of-purchase nutrition education in supermarkets is one intervention strategy of the Pawtucket Heart Health Program, a community cardiovascular disease prevention program in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.Using consumer intercept interviews, awareness of shelf labels and their effect on purchase behavior have been continuously evaluated. Between 1984 and1988, the percent of shoppers who could identify correct labels increased from 11 percent to 24 percent (95% confidence intervals of difference: 7,17). The percent who reported they were encouraged to purchase the identified foods increased from 36 percent to 54 percent (95% CI of difference: 5,41).

Practitioners who wish to deliver targeted nutritional advice to their patients for the prevention and management of elevated serum cholesterol levels must first assess their patients' diets. Unfortunately, many primary care providers do not have sufficient training in nutrition to do this adequately. In this situation, dietary assessment instruments would be useful; however, standard dietary assessment methods such as 24‐h recalls, food records, and food‐frequency questionnaires are inappropriate for use in this clinical setting. Rate Your Plate (RYP), a simplified food‐frequency questionnaire consisting of questions focusing on foods contributing the most fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol to the American diet, was developed by the Pawtucket Heart Health Program (PHHP) in the late 1980s and has been updated several times to reflect changes in national dietary recommendations. This review discusses the development and clinical applications of RYP and provides advice for its use in a primary care setting. A copy of a portion of the instrument is provided in the “Clinical Tools” section of this issue of Nutrition in Clinical Care.

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