More Than One-Quarter of U.S. Adults Have Heard of MyPlate

TUESDAY, Nov. 29, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Just over one-quarter of U.S. adults had heard of the U.S. Department of Agriculture MyPlate, which serves as the primary educational tool to communicate federal dietary guidance, during 2017 to March 2020, and 8.3 percent had tried to follow the recommendations, according to a study published online Nov. 29 in the National Health Statistics Reports, a publication from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Edwina Wambogo, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues identified the proportion of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey participants aged 16 years and older who had heard of MyPlate and tried to follow MyPlate dietary recommendations during 2017 to March 2020. Prevalence estimates were presented for 9,232 adults aged 20 years and older.

The researchers found that 25.3 and 8.3 percent of adults had heard of MyPlate and tried to follow the recommendations, respectively, during 2017 to March 2020. The percentages were higher for women than men, decreased with age, and increased with education; percentages were also higher for adults born in the United States and those who only spoke English at home. Compared with adults who rated their diet as excellent or very good, those who rated their diet as fair or poor were less likely to have heard of MyPlate or have tried to follow the recommendations (odds ratios, 0.65 and 0.44, respectively).

“Awareness of MyPlate and following the recommendations were positively associated with self-rated diet quality,” the authors write.

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