A growing share of U.S. adults consume less than a quarter of the amount of fruit recommended in Federal dietary guidelines, according to researchers from the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS).
Using dietary intake survey data from January 2005 to March 2020, researchers found that by the beginning of the 2020s, about 40 percent of all adults consumed below 25 percent of the recommended amount of fruit. This marks an increase from 37 percent in 2013–16 and 32 percent in 2009–12. Meanwhile, the share of adults meeting the recommended fruit intake has remained consistently at about 15 percent.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–25 defines fruits to include fresh, canned, frozen, dried products, and 100-percent fruit juice, with each type counting equally toward intake recommendations.
Estimates derived from a statistical model found little association between household income or fruit prices and the likelihood of meeting the recommendations or consuming less than 25 percent of them. Instead, factors more closely linked to these consumption patterns included behaviors such as smoking, exercising, and awareness of MyPlate (USDA's official symbol of the five food groups). These behaviors reflect consumer awareness of health and knowledge of what constitutes a healthy diet.
This analysis appears in the ERS report Trends in U.S. Fruit Consumption Relative to Recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in December 2024.
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