Grain intake in the United States.

Title
Grain intake in the United States.
Source
Nutrition Today. 36, (2): 48-55, 2001.

Numerous government and scientific organizations have made recommendations over the past 20 years that support the importance of consumption of grain products. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) recommend choosing a daily diet that consists of a variety of grains, especially whole grains in the publication Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which provides the basis for the federal nutrition policy.

To help Americans get all the nutrients and other substances needed for health, the USDA published The Food Guide Pyramid, which provides recommended numbers of daily servings from each of five major food groups. Grain foods form the base of The Food Guide Pyramid, which recommends consuming 6 to 11 servings each day, including several whole-grain servings. The National Academy of Sciences published Diet and Health in 1989, the first such report by the Academy to focus on the implications of diet for reducing chronic disease risk. This report emphasized daily consumption of six or more servings of a combination of breads, cereals, and legumes. In January 2000, new national nutrition objectives for the year 2010 were released by the DHHS. One of the nutrition objectives calls for increasing the proportion of persons age 2 and older who consume at least six daily servings of grain products, with at least three servings being whole grains.

These scientific and dietary guidance reports demonstrate the consensus on the importance of grain products in the diet, and at least six servings of grain products daily is the consistent dietary intake recommendation. The purpose of this article is to present national estimates of grain intakes of Americans, identify major dietary sources of grain products, and compare nutrient intakes of individuals meeting the Pyramid recommendations for grains with those not meeting recommendations using the new USDA Pyramid Servings Data Set.

Grains are an important part of the American diet. Grain intake in America has increased since the 1970s, driven by the increased consumption of mixture-type foods that include grains. In 1994-1996, Americans were consuming about 7 servings of grains per day, as defined by the Food Guide Pyramid. However, only about one third of Americans met the recommendation for grains. Americans whose income was below the federal poverty guideline were the least likely to meet Pyramid recommendations for grains, fruit, vegetables, and dairy servings.

Adults who met the Pyramid recommendation for grains were more likely to be men, younger, white, in a higher income category, more educated, nonsmokers, exercisers, vitamin and mineral supplement users, and not overweight. These adults also had a better nutrient profile, excluding nutrient intake from vitamin and mineral supplements. Nutrition education strategies should continue to emphasize the importance of grains to a well-balanced diet and target those population subgroups who are less likely to meet their Pyramid recommendation for grains servings.