Few adults in the USA rate their diet as being “good or excellent”

New data from USDA’s Economic Research Service show Americans don’t have high ratings for their diets. In the period covering January 2017 to March 2020, just under three in ten adults, or 29 percent, reported the healthfulness of their diets was very good or excellent. That is 3.5 percentage points lower than the corresponding share reported in 2005–06. The data can be found in the latest publicly available wave of the Flexible Consumer Behavior Survey, which collects information on U.S. consumers’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about nutrition and food choices.

For context, 41 percent of adults surveyed in the 1989–1991 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes of Individuals rated the healthfulness of their diets as “very good” or excellent, suggesting a continuing downward trend in the health quality individuals ascribe to their diets. FCBS is a module of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and its data reflect national trends about changing dietary behaviors of U.S. consumers.