This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Improvement seen in US adult diet quality, still remains poor

Between 1999 and 2012, the overall quality of diets of U.S. adults diets have improved, which resulted in a decrease in comorbidities and premature death, according to recently published data. 

“We observed a steady improvement in dietary quality of U.S. adults, which has contributed to a substantial reduction in disease burden. Nevertheless, the overall dietary quality of the U.S. population remain poor, and disparities across different socioeconomic groups increased throughout this period,” Dong D. Wang, doctoral candidate, departments of nutrition and epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and colleagues wrote.

To assess trends in dietary quality and the impact the trends have on chronic disease burden and death, researchers analyzed data from the Alternative Healthy Eating Index 2010. The overall analysis consisted of 33,885 U.S. adults.

Results demonstrated that the index increased from 39.9 to 48.2, with a perfect score being 110, from 1999 to 2012. Significant increases in scores were seen in the consumption of fruit, whole grains, nuts and legumes and polyunsaturated fatty acids, which indicates increased consumption, and for sugar-sweetened beverages and fruit juice, and red and processed meats, indicating decreased consumption. In contrast, there was a significant decrease in the score for sodium consumption, translating to greater intake.

Disparities in scores were seen across socioeconomic groups, with higher index scores and greater improvement was seen among participants with higher education levels and healthier body weight, according to the researchers. After adjusting for covariates, significant differences were seen in index scores between Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites. Non-Hispanic black adults had the lowest index scores compared with other ethnic groups, but showed significant improvements in diet quality between 1999 and 2012.

The researchers estimated that nearly 1.1 million premature deaths were prevented between 1999 and 2012 due to improvements in diet quality. Moreover, 8.6% fewer cases of cardiovascular disease, 1.3% fewer cases of cancers and 12.6% fewer cases of type 2 diabetes were attributed to improvements in diet quality between 1999 and 2012.

Wang and colleagues noted that policy initiatives addressing disparities in health eating between socioeconomic groups are desperately needed to move forward and reduce morbidity and mortality due to poor diet quality.

“Our findings provide further justification for promoting healthful diets as a national priority for chronic disease prevention, as well as for legislative and regulatory actions to improve the food supply more broadly,” Wang said in a press release. – by Casey Hower