The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans: Adherence to Key Recommendations in Hispanic Females

Abstract

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) are released by the United States Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services to encourage consumption of a healthy eating pattern. Key recommendations of the 2015 DGAs include limiting saturated fats and sugars, and increasing consumption of a variety of fruits and vegetables, low‐fat dairy, and whole grains. The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) is commonly used as a measure of adherence, but the current HEI does not reflect the newest DGAs. Here, we propose a new HEI to assess adherence (HEI‐A) to the 2015 DGAs in a cohort of Hispanic females, a group disproportionately affected by obesity and related comorbidities.Fifty Hispanic females completed a semi‐quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Anthropometric measurements were also taken. Key recommendations from the 2015 DGAs for women were reviewed and an adherence index was derived from ten categories, each with a maximum score of ten. Total adherence was the sum of these 10 categories (max = 100). The HEI‐A is similar to the 2010 HEI, but reflects changes made in the 2015 DGAs.The average adherence score was 44.49 (SD: 14.47, 95% CI: 40.14–48.83). High fruit and vegetable intake was significantly associated with high adherence score (p=0.001). Low intake of saturated fat was significantly correlated with higher HEI‐A (r=0.71, p=0.03). The category with the greatest adherence was reduction of added sugars, with a mean score of 5.81 (SD: 2.94) out of 10. Adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables had the lowest mean of 2.89 (SD: 3.53). HEI‐A was not correlated with body mass index or waist circumference, and there were no significant differences between normal weight, overweight, or obese individuals.On average, participants were meeting fewer than half the recommendations of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, regardless of weight status. Of note, the lowest adherence was in consumption of fruits and vegetables, but those individuals meeting this recommendation had overall greater HEI‐A scores. The DGAs are released to encourage healthy eating to prevent disease, and nutrition education tailored to Hispanics should continue to focus on emphasizing adherence to prevent obesity and related disease in this at‐risk population.Support or Funding InformationThis project was supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no. 2015‐68001‐23248 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.