Erin Allman-Updike

And these data come from like a whole bunch of really wide-ranging surveys.

Despite those abysmal overarching statistics, according to all of this data, the majority of individuals over age one are at or above dietary guideline recommendations for total grains,

Okay.

Refined grains, which is maybe the less great option.

Total protein foods.

Okay.

Protein.

And meat, poultry, and eggs.

Okay.

So we're doing just fine there.

Yep.

Where we are falling short is vegetables, including all subgroups of vegetables.

And they group them by like green versus red and orange versus, again, beans, peas, and lentils were in there as vegetables.

Okay.

We're falling short on fruits.

We're falling short on the dietary guidelines recommendations for dairy or fortified soy alternatives, as well as seafood, nuts, seeds, soy products, and whole grains.

OK, so you might ask, as I did, why do we need recommendations telling us to emphasize protein and animal protein when we're already getting enough, if not too much?

And we're falling short in so many other regards.

If you want to go even deeper and you know that I do, we can look at other like macronutrient profiles.

Only 6% of us in the United States are meeting our fiber recommendations, which is 25 to 35 grams of fiber a day.