Over the past century, as our food environments have gotten less healthy, so have our diets.
We're overconsuming known disease-causing foods.
Americans are eating 50% more meat than the amount recommended in the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines.
We're underconsuming foods
vital to our health.
Only 1 in 10 Americans eat the minimally recommended amount of fruits and vegetables - leaving 97% of us fiber deficient.
Our diets are dangerously imbalanced.
Over 60% of the foods in the standard American diet are ultra-processed food-type products like chicken nuggets and frozen pizza.
Less healthy diets have led to less healthy families.
Poor nutrition is killing us.
Imbalanced diets are the leading cause of disease, disability, and premature death. Unhealthy dietary-patterns are responsible for 700,000 American deaths annually.
We're sicker than ever.
Over 117 million American adults live with one or more preventable, chronic illness(es) linked to imbalanced dietary patterns.
Our children are not immune.
The current generation of children has a predicted lifespan that is shorter than that of their parents as a result of imbalanced dietary patterns.
and it's because of our
Food Environments
Our food environments are the primary determiners of our food choices, which is why the foods that dominate our food environments also dominate our diets.
Even with the best of intentions,
and endless nutrition information at our fingertips, until our food environments support healthier eating, our families will continue to experience unnecessary food-system caused, diet-related diseases.
In the fight for healthier families,
balanced menus make a difference
- now more than ever.
Make a difference with Balanced
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Impact Calculator
Clearly, our food environments impact our health - but do we really know how much?
Select a food category below to learn more about the true impact menus and food environments have on our health.
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