HEALTH6 Diet Quality: Average diet scores for children ages 2–17 as a percentage of Federal diet quality standards by age and dietary component, 2003

HEALTH6 Diet Quality: Average diet scores for children ages 2–17 as a percentage of Federal diet quality standards by age and dietary component, 2003–2004

Dietary component	Ages 2–17	Ages 2–5	Ages 6–11	Ages 12–17
Total Healthy Eating Index-2005 score	56	60	55	55
Dietary adequacy components^a
Total fruit	64	100	58	50
Whole fruit	56	86	55	44
Total vegetables	47	44	46	49
Dark green and orange vegetables and legumes	12	13	11	12
Total grains	100	100	100	100
Whole grains	15	17	18	13
Milk	87	100	87	77
Meat and beans	81	73	78	88
Oils	67	55	66	75
Dietary moderation components^b
Saturated fat	52	47	52	54
Sodium	44	48	45	42
Extra calories^c	41	47	38	39
^a Higher scores reflect higher intakes.
^b Higher scores reflect lower intakes.
^c Extra calories from other sources, such as solid fats and added sugars.
NOTE: The Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI-2005) is a dietary assessment tool comprised of 12 components designed to measure quality in terms of how well diets meet the recommendations of the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPyramid, USDA's food guidance system (http://www.MyPyramid.gov.^{1, 2, 3} The HEI-2005 component scores are averages across all children which reflect usual dietary intakes.⁴ These scores are expressed as percentages of recommended dietary intake levels. A score corresponding to 100 percent indicates that the recommendation was met or exceeded, on average. A score below 100 percent indicates that average intake does not meet the recommendations for that component. Nine components of the HEI-2005 address nutrient adequacy. The remaining three components assess saturated fat, sodium, and extra calories, all of which should be consumed in moderation. For the adequacy components, higher scores reflect higher intakes; for the moderation components, higher scores reflect lower intakes because lower intakes are more desirable. For all components, a higher percentage indicates a higher quality diet.
SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2003–2004 and U.S. Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Healthy Eating Index-2005.
¹ U.S. Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2005). Dietary Guidelines for Americans (6th ed.) Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
² Guenther, P.M., Reedy, J., and Krebs-Smith, S.M. (2008). Development of the Healthy Eating Index-2005. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 108, 1896–1901.
³ Guenther, P.M., Reedy, J., Krebs-Smith, S.M., and Reeve, B.B. (2008). Evaluation of the Healthy Eating Index-2005. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 108, 1854–1864.
⁴ Freedman, L.S., Guenther, P.M., Krebs-Smith, S.M., and Kott, P.S. (2008). A population's mean Healthy Eating Index-2005 scores are best estimated by the score of the population ratio when one 24-hour recall is available. Journal of Nutrition, 138, 1725–1729.