HEALTH6 Diet quality: Average diet scores for children ages 2–17 as a percentage of Federal diet quality standards by age and dietary component, 2007

HEALTH6 Diet quality: Average diet scores for children ages 2–17 as a percentage of Federal diet quality standards by age and dietary component, 2007–2008

Dietary component	Ages 2–17	Ages 2–5	Ages 6–11	Ages 12–17
Total Healthy Eating Index-2005 score	59	63	57	57
Dietary adequacy components^a
Total fruit	78	100	74	59
Whole fruit	92	100	88	71
Total vegetables	48	44	44	52
Dark green and orange vegetables and legumes	16	19	12	19
Total grains	100	100	100	100
Whole grains	18	20	18	17
Milk	84	100	79	76
Meat and beans	85	75	83	92
Oils	63	58	63	64
Dietary moderation components^b
Saturated fat	51	47	50	54
Sodium	40	48	43	33
Extra calories^c	46	53	42	45
^a Higher scores reflect higher intakes.
^b Higher scores reflect lower intakes.
^c Extra calories from other sources, such as solid fats and added sugars.
NOTE: The Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI-2005) is a dietary assessment tool comprised of 12 components designed to measure quality in terms of how well diets meet the recommendations of the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPyramid, USDA’s food guidance system (http://www.MyPyramid.gov).^{1, 2, 3} The HEI-2005 component scores are averages across all children and reflect usual dietary intakes.⁴ These scores are expressed as percentages of recommended dietary intake levels. A score corresponding to 100 percent indicates that the recommendation was met or exceeded, on average. A score below 100 percent indicates that average intake does not meet the recommendations for that component. Nine components of the HEI-2005 address nutrient adequacy. The remaining three components assess saturated fat, sodium, and extra calories, all of which should be consumed in moderation. For the adequacy components, higher scores reflect higher intakes; for the moderation components, higher scores reflect lower intakes because lower intakes are more desirable. For all components, a higher percentage indicates a higher quality diet. Some estimates have been revised since previous publication in America’s Children.
SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2007–2008 and U.S. Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, MyPyramid Equivalents Database 2007–2008 (preliminary).
¹ U.S. Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2005). Dietary Guidelines for Americans (6th ed.). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
² Guenther, P.M., Reedy, J., and Krebs-Smith, S.M. (2008). Development of the Healthy Eating Index-2005. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 108, 1896–1901.
³ Guenther, P.M., Reedy, J., Krebs-Smith, S.M., and Reeve, B.B. (2008). Evaluation of the Healthy Eating Index-2005. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 108, 1854–1864.
⁴ Freedman, L.S., Guenther, P.M., Krebs-Smith, S.M., and Kott, P.S. (2008). A population’s mean Healthy Eating Index-2005 scores are best estimated by the score of the population ratio when one 24-hour recall is available. Journal of Nutrition, 138, 1725–1729.