What happened?
“After 2000, shifts in scientific evidence and dietary guidelines promoted health benefits of healthy fats and plant sources of protein and the harms of low-quality carbohydrates.”
As of 2015, the majority of energy in a typical American’s diet comes from carbohydrates (50.5%), 83.2% of them considered low quality. This has gone down slightly from 85.7 % in 1999.
There has been no change in the source of protein relative to each other from 1999-2015 (plant vs animal), even though both have increased slightly.
“The increases in the estimated energy intake from animal protein were associated with increases in estimated protein intake derived from poultry (from 2.38% to 2.54%; difference, 0.15%; 95% CI, 0.07%-0.24%; P < .001 for trend) and eggs (from 0.70% to 0.80%;difference,0.10%;95% CI, 0.08%-0.13%; P < .001 for trend). The increases in estimated energy intake from plant protein were associated with increases in estimated protein intake from whole grains (from 0.38% to 0.50%; difference, 0.12%; 95% CI, 0.09%-0.15%; P < .001 for trend), nuts (from 0.36% to 0.45%; difference, 0.09%;95%CI,0.05%-0.13%;P < .001 for trend), and soy (from 0.12% to 0.19%; difference, 0.07%; 95% CI, 0.04%-0.10%; P < .001 for trend).”
Source: Shan Z, Rehm CD, Rogers G, Ruan M, Wang DD, Hu FB, et al. Trends in Dietary Carbohydrate, Protein, and Fat Intake and Diet Quality Among US Adults, 1999-2016. JAMA [Internet]. 2019 Sep 24 [cited 2019 Sep 30];322(12):1178. Available from: jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2751719;
