Some Disturbing Nutritional News

Look at the two graphs on Marion Nestle's blog post titled "We eat what we buy. Both need improvement, says USDA." Focusing on grains, for example, we all know we're supposed to eat whole grains. It doesn't need to be 100%, but these graphs show that we, as a society, are way off the mark.

Here are two quotes from the abstract of the study cited by Dr. Nestle:

Overall, consumers purchase too few fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and too many refined grains, fats, and sugars/sweets.

Differences across income levels and across race are small,with all subgroups falling well short of the recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines.

And from "Discussion and Conclusions," page 15:

Virtually without exception among food categories, consumers allocate too much of their food budgets to less healthful options and too little to healthful options. We find that the average household falls far short in fruit and vegetable consumption and spends too much on sugars and refined grains. The correlation between income and purchase healthfulness warrants further research on both the food environment and consumer perceptions, particularly since healthy food options are typically not more expensive (Carlson and Frazao, 2012).

If you do better than this, keep up the good work.

If this describes you, consider making a small change for the better!