The US Federal Government has put out dietary recommendations based on scientific research for many decades. Even with these
supposed health recommended foods and beverages, the United States is experiencing an unprecedented obesity epidemic, in addition to the prevalence of many diet-related diseases.
A new study has compared these dietary guidelines with the actual food supply in the United States, to determine if availability (or the lack thereof) of healthy foods may be contributing to the diet-related health problems plaguing Americans.
The researchers from the US and Canada looked at the most current set of dietary recommendations (as of the time of this study) using the Healthy Eating Index – 2010 (HEI-2010) and compared them with 40 years of actual US food supply data from 1970 through 2010.
Food supply data sets came from: the Loss-Adjusted Food Availability Data set, the ERS Nutrient Availability Data set, data on salt consumption from the Salt Institute, and estimates per capita of alcohol consumption from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Important Findings: