Dietary Guidelines for Americans Dietary Patterns Are Associated with Significant Improvements in Healthy Life As Assessed by the Health Nutritional Index (HENI)

OBJECTIVES: To assess health burden as measured by disability adjusted life years (DALY) of current US adult diets and of Dietary Guidelines for American (DGA) recommended diets. METHODS: A nationally representative sample of Americans aged 25 + years old (N = 13,331) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2016 database were used to determine current self-reported dietary patterns and to estimated health burden (DALY) in minutes of healthy life using the Health Nutritional Index (HENI), an epidemiology-based multiplicatively adjusted nutritional assessment tool based on 14 dietary risk factors identified in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD). Additionally, we estimated the health burden/benefit of DGA recommended dietary patterns for 2000 kcal/day: 1) Healthy US Style; 2) Healthy Vegetarian Style; and 3) Healthy Mediterranean Style. The maximum benefit if the threshold intakes in GBD were consumed was also evaluated. RESULTS: The currently consumed diet was associated with a gain of 0.2 minutes of healthy life/day. Current diets in females were associated with a gain of 5 minutes of heathy life/day while in males current diets were associated with a decrease of 4 minutes of healthy life/day. The Healthy US Style diets was associated with a gain of 32 minutes of healthy life/day while the Healthy Vegetarian Style and Healthy Mediterranean Style diets were associated with gains of 56 and 38 minutes of healthy life/day, respectively. The maximal benefit, consuming threshold intakes in the GBD, was associated with a gain of 84 minutes of healthy life/day. The largest components of the gains were due to increases in intake of fruit (15–19 min/day), whole grains (11 min/d), vegetables (6 min/d) and milk (4–6 min/day); the increases fish in the Healthy Mediterranean Style diet provided additional benefits (10 min/day). CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that DGA recommended diets may provide significant improvements in healthy life over current diets. FUNDING SOURCES: National Dairy Council.