What is the Healthy Eating Index and how does it work?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

An assessment tool, called the Healthy Eating Index, can be used to measure how well a diet meets the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines. Various components of the diet are given scores that reflect the quantities consumed. For most components, higher intakes result in higher scores. For example, selecting at least 3 ounces of whole grains (per 2000 kcalories) gives a score of 10 points, whereas selecting no whole grains gives a score of 0 points. For a few components, lower intakes provide higher scores. For example, less than 2.2 grams of sodium (per 2000 kcalories) receives 10 points, but more than 4 grams gets 0 points. An assessment of recent nutrition surveys using the Healthy Eating Index reports that the American diet scores 54 out of a possible 100 points. To improve this score, the American diet needs to decrease kcalories from solid fats and added sugars by about 60 percent; increase fruits by 100 percent and vegetables and milk products by 70 percent; maintain the quantity of grains but shift the quality to four times as many whole grains; and reduce salt by more than half.