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Based on the new dietary guidelines released January 7, most Americans aren't eating what the government says they should. (Not all of the government's recommendations are aligned with the latest science, but much of the advice — to eat more more vegetables and less sugar, for example — is sound.)
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Most of us don't eat enough vegetables, fruits, dairy, or oils; and we eat too much sugar, saturated fats, and sodium. We're doing okay when it comes to grains and protein, though.
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You can see how each food group stacks up in this chart, where the bars represent the percent of Americans, and the orange means they're not meeting the recommendations — either eating too much of a bad thing or too little of a good one:
Scroll down to see how we're all doing, on average.
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The blue bars are what the USDA recommends people eat based on their age and activity level. No age group is eating enough vegetables per day.
Babies and children, especially the girls, are eating enough fruit. But adults aren't.
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Men of all ages, on average, are eating enough grains. Most girls and elderly women are, but adult females fall just below the recommendation.
Babies of both sexes have enough dairy, but then it drops off considerably. The USDA says most adults should be having three cups per day.
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Boys, girls, and female adults are within the recommendations for protein, but most men eat too much of it on average. And women aged 14-18 aren't getting enough.
Everyone should limit their daily calories from added sugar to 10% (or ideally <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/what-happens-if-you-eat-too-much-sugar-2015-11">even less</a>), but we're all eating too much of it on average. Children in particular are way over the limit.
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Everyone eats too much sodium, too. The daily recommended limit for adults is 2,300 milligrams. And while <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt/">the latest science suggests</a> it may be time to relax that limit somewhat, some men are eating almost double that on average.
The blue bars are what the USDA recommends for oil intake, the green diamonds are what oils Americans are eating on average, and the orange circles are what solid fats they're eating. For pretty much everyone, solid fats are too high and oils are slightly too low, though these guidelines are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-butter-2014-2">especially controversial</a>.
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This is another look at saturated fats, which Americans should only get no more than 10% of their daily calories from. Most of us are getting 11-12%. And while <a href="http://authoritynutrition.com/saturated-fat-good-or-bad/">saturated fats have been overly demonized in the past</a>, on this one measure at least, we're getting close.
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