Healthy eating index

The healthiness of Americans' diets has increased slowly but steadily since the 1980s. Nevertheless, the healthy eating index has experienced its share of declines, most prominently toward the early 2000s. This decline resulted from dramatic increases in dairy and fat consumption compared with fruit and vegetable consumption. At the time, fruit and vegetable consumption fell steadily due to rising prices. A growing trend toward plant-based biofuels as high crude oil prices prevailed in the United States boosted food prices over the past five years as grain prices shot up dramatically, pulling up prices of other foods with them. Consequently, the added demand drove up most vegetable prices. The same price increases, however, helped drive down corn syrup consumption, a major component of total sugar and sweetener consumption. This tempering of corn syrup consumption has been aided somewhat by the increasing exposure to its negative effects, namely elevated rates of obesity and diabetes, which has helped Americans choose healthier diets. In addition, low-carb, high-protein diets became increasingly popular, decreasing grain consumption and increasing meat consumption. Both food categories were overconsumed previously, though, causing a mixed effect on the overall healthiness of the diet.

It should be noted that various conditions leading to price volatility across many food segments caused a drop in overall consumption of measured food products. For example, adverse weather conditions resulted in price volatility for many vegetables and fruits produced in Florida and across the Midwest, causing consumers to decrease their already-low consumption of fruits and vegetables. Furthermore, volatility in the price of red meat encouraged many consumers to trade back down to processed meats over the period, contributing to unhealthy diet practices. Despite these setbacks, increasing health awareness over the past five years, partially prompted by public efforts, including boosted public awareness of health concerns, has led the index to mitigate concurrent negative effects on the consumption of unhealthy products. The COVID-19 pandemic left many individuals inside their homes, which allowed people to grab a snack whenever they wanted to while performing tasks at their jobs that were mostly remote in the year, which left more people consuming more than usual in the year which also left people consuming more junk food leading to the index lowering in the same period. Even with the reopening of the economy in 2021, the index continues to be pressured in the period with the continuation of factors like the popularity of snack items and unhealthy foods, which continue to pose a threat to the index as these items, especially with the increasing availability of brands and flavors in the market, paired with concurrent advertisements has made them historically very popular in the period. With these factors expected to continue in 2023, 2024 and 2025, the index continues to be more tempered in the period.