Fruit more prevalent on school menus and in foods eaten at home in Americans' diets

Data from the 2003-04 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) reveal that foods served at schools contained 0.71 cups of fruit per 1,000 calories, a higher density of fruit than served at restaurants with wait staff, fast food places, and other away from home eating places, and a little higher than foods eaten at home. ERS researchers used USDA's MyPyramid Equivalents Database to convert the over 7,000 foods reported by NHANES participants into food group components. For example, carrot-raisin salad was converted into cups of fruit and cups of vegetables. The data in this chart are from the Food and Nutrient Intake Tables (table 2) in the Diet Quality & Food Consumption topic on the ERS website, updated June 15, 2011.

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