Despite our collective move toward healthier eating and lifestyles, the American diet has a long way to go on the road to measuring up to U.S. dietary standards, according to two recent studies published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
 
The first study culled its findings from the responses of 8,272 Americans ranging in age from 2-65+ years who reported what they ate in the span of one day, via the Healthy Eating Index-2005 survey. Each study respondent subset was assigned a score between zero and 100 based on the percentage of the USDA recommendation for different food groups, such as fruit, vegetables, grains, milk, meat and beans, they consumed each day. While no group scored remotely close to a perfect 100, children and adults scored 56 and seniors scored 65.
 
After analyzing the data, researchers concluded that children and the elderly seemed to eat a healthier diet than younger and middle-aged adults. Women also reported having better quality diets than men. Along ethnic lines, Hispanics tended to have better diets than both African Americans and Caucasians.
 
Hispanic children came closer to meeting the USDA’s daily recommendations for fruit and vegetables compared to Caucasian children, and closer to the recommended amounts of fruit compared to African American children. What’s more, children hailing from lower-income households met more of the USDA recommendations than wealthier children. This observation was likely due to their participation in the National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs.
 
Economically speaking, the trend reversed as wealthier adults seemed to meet more of the USDA recommendations.
 
“The diets of Americans 2 years and older, regardless of socioeconomic status, are far less than optimal,” the researchers wrote. “Problematic dietary patterns were found among all sociodemographic groups.
 
“Because healthful eating is essential for normal development of children and prevention of chronic disease for all ages, major improvements in the nutritional health of the American public can be made by improving eating patterns,” they continued. “Nutrition interventions with an emphasis on increasing whole-grain, fruit, and vegetable intakes; choosing more foods and beverages that have fewer calories from solid fats, added sugars, and alcohol and are lower in sodium; and eating patterns that include more fat-free or low-fat milk and oils that are high in poly-and monounsaturated fatty acids would improve the diet quality of Americans, in turn, reducing the risk for chronic diseases. Intervention strategies should also address the variety of cultural dietary patterns in the United States, as well as decrease barriers to healthy eating.”
 
The researchers said more research into the American diet is warranted and suggested future research directions could include determining the particular types of foods consumed at home, at school, and at other away-from-home locations that contribute to the differences in diet quality, as well as determining what characteristics of the various subpopulations contribute to the differences found in this study.
 
More Label Changes Ahead?
 
The Nutrition Facts label, introduced 20 years ago, has undergone a series of changes in an effort to  provide consumers with important information like serving size and number of servings, calories per serving, and the amount nutrients for each serving of a packaged food. However, research from FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) has determined that more changes to the label should be considered.
 
CFSAN’s Amy M. Lando, MPP, and Serena C. Lo, PhD, surveyed more than 9,000 participants online to measure their accuracy in using modified versions of the Nutrition Facts label and to assess their perceptions of how useful, trustworthy and helpful the label was. They found consumers continue to miscalculate the number of calories and the nutritional content of products that have two or more servings per container but are usually consumed in a single eating occasion.
 
They proposed two labeling changes as a potential solution. The first consisted of a dual-column informational panel that details single serving and total package nutrition information. The second was a declaration of nutritional information for the entire container.
 
Study participants evaluated nine modified Nutrition Facts labels and the current label format for four fictitious products (two frozen meals and two grab-and-go bags of chips). The labels were classified into three groups. The first group of labels used a single-column format to display information for products with two servings per container; the second group used versions of a dual-column format to display information for products with two servings per container; and the third group used single-column formats that listed the contents of the product as a single, large serving.
 
The study team also tested whether changes in formatting, such as enlarging the font size for the declaration of “Calories,” removing the information on the number of calories from fat, or changing the wording for the serving size declaration, would be helpful to consumers in determining the calories and other nutrient information for a single serving and for the entire package.
 
Study investigators determined that participants could more accurately assess the number of calories or amount of fat or other nutrients per serving and in the entire package when a single, large serving per container format or a dual-column format was used.
 
“This research is just one step in understanding how some potential food label modifications might help consumers make better decisions. Ideally, we would like to see how these labels perform in a more realistic setting, such as in a grocery store, with actual packaged foods as opposed to large labels on a computer screen,” concluded Dr. Lo. “The Nutrition Facts label is only one tool that can help consumers make informed food choices and maintain healthy dietary practices, but it is a valuable tool so it’s important to continue exploring ways to support effective use of the label for these purposes.”