Characteristics and Dietary Patterns of Healthy and Less-Healthy Eaters in the Low-Income Population

The diets of most Americans fall short of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This exploratory analysis examines dietary patterns of low-income individuals classified as healthy and less healthy eaters based on their score on the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2005. The HEI-2005 is a 100-point score that measures how well populations adhere to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. For this analysis, individuals with HEI-2005 scores of 70 or higher are defined as healthy eaters (scored by top 10 percent of the general population). Individuals with scores below 49 (scored by half of the general population) are defined as less
healthy eaters.