Trends in U.S. Fruit Consumption Relative to Recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans

by Hayden Stewart, Sabrina Young, Diansheng Dong, and Anne Byrne

Using 2005–20 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, this report finds that a stable share of the U.S. population—about 23 percent of children and 15 percent of adults—has been consuming enough fruit to satisfy Federal dietary recommendations since at least the mid-2000s. However, a growing share of the population is consuming below a quarter of the recommended amount. This group totaled almost 29 percent of children and 40 percent of adults at the beginning of the 2020s. Estimation of a statistical model revealed little association between either household income or fruit prices and the likelihood that someone met the recommendations or consumed less than 25 percent of them. Factors more closely associated with falling into one of these two groups included behaviors such as smoking, exercising, and awareness of MyPlate (USDA’s official symbol of the five food groups), which indicate a consumer’s level of concern for health as well as knowledge of what constitutes a healthy diet.

Keywords: Fruit, dietary trends, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys

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