The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday gave Americans a failing grade when it comes to eating right, but said the country is on the cusp of finally earning a “D.”
A USDA nutritionist posted a blog Wednesday that said the latest Healthy Eating Index score for the country, for 2012, is 59 out of 100. That’s an “F” in most high schools, but just short of the 60 needed for a “D.”
But the trend is slowly rising. The country scored 57.8 two years earlier, and the score has slowly been increasing from 49.1 back in 2000.
The index measures how well people’s food choices line up with the government’s dietary guidelines, or in the case of the U.S. population, how far it still has to go.
“About half of all American adults — 117 million individuals — have one or more preventable chronic diseases, many of which are related to poor quality eating patterns and physical inactivity,” wrote TusaRebecca Schap, lead nutritionist for USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.
“These include cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and poor bone health,” she wrote. “Trends in food intake show that Americans are not consuming healthy eating patterns.”
According to the latest scores from 2012, older adults are doing better than kids. Kids from age 2 to 17 score just 55 out of 100, and older adults get a high “D” grade of 68.
“More than two-thirds of adults and nearly one-third of children and youth are overweight or obese,” she wrote.
