Americans Do Not Meet Federal Dietary Recommendations

Abstract

A longstanding goal of dietary surveillance has been to estimate the proportion of the population with intakes above or below a target, such as a recommended level of intake. However, until now, statistical methods for assessing the alignment of food intakes with recommendations have been lacking. The purposes of this study were to demonstrate the National Cancer Institute's method of estimating the distribution of usual intake of foods and determine the proportion of the U.S. population who does not meet federal dietary recommendations. Data were obtained from the 2001-2004 NHANES for 16,338 persons, aged 2 y and older. Quantities of foods reported on 24-h recalls were translated into amounts of various food groups using the MyPyramid Equivalents Database. Usual dietary intake distributions were modeled, accounting for sequence effect, weekend/weekday effect, sex, age, poverty income ratio, and race/ethnicity. The majority of the population did not meet recommendations for all of the nutrient-rich food groups, except total grains and meat and beans. Concomitantly, overconsumption of energy from solid fats, added sugars, and alcoholic beverages ("empty calories") was ubiquitous. Over 80% of persons age ≥ 71 y and over 90% of all other sex-age groups had intakes of empty calories that exceeded the discretionary calorie allowances. In conclusion, nearly the entire U.S. population consumes a diet that is not on par with recommendations. These findings add another piece to the rather disturbing picture that is emerging of a nation's diet in crisis.

Nutritional status as assessed by nutrient intakes and biomarkers among women of childbearing age – is the burden of nutrient inadequacies growing in America?

“…This information is relevant for several reasons: (i) there is a growing incidence of metabolic complications during pregnancy, e.g. gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia and preterm deliveries; (ii) there is accumulating evidence that maternal body weight gain and nutrient intakes prior to and during pregnancy are important predictors of body weight gain and composition, as well as of the incidence of chronic disease during infancy and childhood; and (iii) there are concerns about diet quality within this vulnerable group (10) . Therefore, our goal was threefold: (i) to conduct a comprehensive analysis of nutrient intakes from foods in women of childbearing age (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30) years and 31-50 years), based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database, and also examine their patterns of dietary supplement use; (ii) to understand if ethnicity and income differentially influence nutrient intakes among them; and (iii) to report the prevalence of low nutrient biomarker concentrations in blood, as an index of nutritional adequacy.…”

Fruit and vegetable intake: issues with definition and measurement

“…Studies consistently report that most Americans do not eat enough fruits and vegetables on a daily basis (3)(4)(5) . A number of interventions have been developed and implemented to try and increase fruit and vegetable intake among Americans, but so far these efforts have had little success (6) .…”

Consuming the daily recommended amounts of dairy products would reduce the prevalence of inadequate micronutrient intakes in the United States: diet modelling study based on NHANES 2007–2010

“…5 The 2010 DGA recommends Americans over the age of 9 years consume 3 servings daily; however, the more recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) [2009][2010] indicates that Americans ages 2 and older consume only 1.9 servings of dairy products per day on average. 6 Dairy consumption continues to decline with increasing age, starting early in childhood.…”