Dietary Guidelines for Americans

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) were first issued in 1980 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Updated and revised DGA have been issued since that time at 5-year intervals. The goals of these dietary guidelines are to provide science-based, authoritative recommendations to help healthy individuals (2 years and older) make food choices within a complete diet that support overall health and to provide a foundation for public nutrition policy and nutrition education messages and programs to help achieve the first goal. Although these broad goals have been consistent throughout the history of the DGA, some emphases of individual sets of guidelines have shifted through time to reflect contemporary scientific evidence and public health ...