The New Healthy Eating Index

Dietary risk factors are among the key contributors to mortality and morbidity in the United States and globally, and there is increasing emphasis on understanding the influence of total diet quality and overall dietary patterns rather than single aspects of what we eat and drink. In order to evaluate the quality of what people eat and drink, researchers often rely on recommendations such as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). In the latest issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, leading nutrition experts describe and evaluate the latest version of the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), which has been issued to correspond to the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The DGA are updated every five years, leading to changes in emphasis and quantification, as the evidence on healthy eating evolves over time. Likewise, a new HEI is issued to correspond to each new edition of the DGA and to reflect these changes. The HEI is a measure of diet quality, independent of quantity, that can be used at various levels of the food stream, including the national food supply, the community food environment (e.g., foods available at a school or a fast food menu), and food intakes among the population.

Source: How healthy is the American diet? The Healthy Eating Index helps determine the answer