Dietary Guidance and New School Meal Standards: Schoolchildren's Whole Grain Consumption Over 1994-2014

Since 2005, the federal government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans have recommended at least half of total grain intake be whole grains. Beginning with the 2012-2013 school year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture updated school meal regulations to align with this recommendation.

Nationally representative food consumption survey data spanning 1994-2014 were analyzed in 2018 to construct a sample of 17,016 schoolchildren aged 5-19 years. Regression models were used to examine changes in whole grain/total grain intake by food source. For school-obtained foods, changes in whole grain intake are decomposed into changes in propensity (proportion of students consuming whole grains) and intensity (amount consumed by whole grain consumers).

The whole grain/total grain ratio from all sources fell from 9.67% (1994-1998) to 7.6% (2005-2006) before climbing to 13.48% (2013-2014). Home-prepared foods topped the whole grain/total grain ratio among all sources until surpassed by school foods in 2013-2014 (17.16% vs 21.48%). The whole grain/total grain ratio from school rose from 4.02% to 21.48% during 1994-2014. Among those consuming school foods, increased intensity contributed more than propensity to increases in whole grain intake from school between 2005-2010 and 2011-2012; the opposite occurred between 2011-2012 and 2013-2014 because of increasing propensity, from one in four to one in two students consuming whole grains.

During 1994-2006, the whole grain/total grain ratio of schoolchildren's diets declined, contrary to expert advice. Following the 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture school meal regulations, both the propensity and the intensity of whole grain consumption from school rose considerably, demonstrating the important role school meals may play in improving children's diets.