Research
Macro partitioning
US adults significantly improved overall diet quality between 1999 and 2012, driven primarily by increased consumption of whole grains, nuts/seeds, and whole fruit, alongside decreased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.
Focus on swapping sugar-sweetened beverages for water or unsweetened options, and increasing intake of whole grains, nuts, seeds, and whole fruit. These specific changes are the primary drivers of improved diet quality in the US population.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Changes were attributable to increased consumption between 1999-2000 and 2011-2012 of whole grains (0.43 servings/d; 95% CI, 0.34-0.53 servings/d) and nuts or seeds (0.25 servings/d; 95% CI, 0.18-0.34 servings/d)... and to decreased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (0.49 servings/d; 95% CI, 0.28-0.70 servings/d).
Why this rating
Large, nationally representative cross-sectional data (NHANES, n=33,932) with rigorous statistical adjustment.
Source
Dietary Intake Among US Adults, 1999-2012
Colin D. Rehm et al. · JAMA · 2016
DOI 10.1001/jama.2016.7491
cross_sectional · n=33932Cited 682×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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