2010 Dietary Guidelines Recommend Filling Half Your Plate with Fruits and Vegetables

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans with no changes to the recommended fruit and vegetable servings per day. The new guidelines do, however, stress the move to a more plant-based diet, specifically instructing Americans to fill half their plates with fruits and vegetables. They also emphasize limiting added sugars and solid fats in the diet, and slashed the maximum recommendation for sodium from less than 2,300 mg to 1,500 mg per day. The new dietary guidelines policy document points out that most Americans of all ages consume too few fruits and vegetables and too many added sugars and solid fats.

Every five (5) years, USDA and HHS examine the latest developments in nutritional science and release a new version of their Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This is done to keep them current with new developments in nutritional science. The guidelines serve as the basis for federal food and nutrition programs like the USDA school breakfast and lunch programs.

The Fruits & Veggies-More Matters website also suggests filling half your plate with fruits and vegetables at every meal or snack as a way of simplifying the process of making sure you’re eating enough. Our site offers tips, recipes, videos, and lots of other helpful information to help ensure half of your plate is fruits and vegetables.

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More About the Dietary Guidelines

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