Healthy Eating Index (HEI) -- What is and more info

Healthy Eating Index (HEI) -- What is and more info

Info source:

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/healthyeatingindex.htm

The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) is a measure of diet quality that assesses conformance to federal dietary guidance. 

USDA’s primary use of the HEI is to monitor the diet quality of the U.S. population and the low-income subpopulation.

 For this purpose the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) uses the data collected via 24-hour recalls of dietary intake in national surveys. 

The HEI is also used to examine relationships between diet and health-related outcomes and between diet cost and diet quality, to determine the effectiveness of nutrition intervention programs, and to assess the quality of food assistance packages, menus, and the US food supply. 

The HEI is a scoring metric that can be applied to any defined set of foods, such as previously-collected dietary data, a defined menu, or a market basket. 

The original HEI was created by CNPP in 1995. It was revised in 2006 by a federal working group, led by CNPP with members from the National Cancer Institute and the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, to reflect the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and updated in 2012 to reflect the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 

For further info please visit

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/healthyeatingindex.htm