Types of food people have in their homes are closely associated with diet perceptions

Based on a 2007-08 national health survey, ERS researchers found that the kinds of foods stored in people's homes were strongly related to diet self-assessment, suggesting familiarity with dietary guidance. For example, survey respondents who reported always having dark green vegetables in the house were three times more likely to rate their diets as "excellent" or "very good" than those who never kept these vegetables in the house. This chart is from How Americans Rate Their Diet Quality: An Increasingly Realistic Perspective, EIB-83, released September 2011.