Consumer

MyPlate

Remember the food pyramid? Meet MyPlate — the official symbol of the five food groups. MyPlate helps consumers put the Dietary Guidelines for Americans into action with inspiration and simple ideas to remind Americans to make healthy choices at every life stage across the food groups. MyPlate illustrates the five food groups using a familiar mealtime visual, a place setting. MyPlate.gov provides many nutrition education resources for consumers:

• By Life Stages: Consumer can find key recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans for each of the life stages, as well as supporting consumer resources.
• MyPlate Tools: Consumers can use these interactive tools to test their knowledge, get a food plan, set healthy eating goals, and more! Shop Simple with MyPlate is one example that empowers consumers with new ways to prepare budget-friendly foods and local SNAP savings.
• Find Spanish versions of many consumer resources at MiPlato en español. MiPlato is the Spanish-language version of MyPlate.
• MyPlate Kitchen: Consumers can find easy, budget-friendly recipes.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (Dietary Guidelines) is a key resource for health professionals to help Americans enjoy a healthy eating pattern, promote health, and prevent chronic disease. The Dietary Guidelines provide a customizable framework for healthy eating that can be tailored and adapted to meet personal preferences, cultural traditions, and budgetary considerations. The Dietary Guidelines is used to inform the development of federal food, nutrition, and health policies and programs and serves as the evidence-based foundation for nutrition education materials that are developed by the federal government for the public.

The Dietary Guidelines is jointly issued and updated every 5 years by the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services. Even though the Dietary Guidelines is developed and written for a professional audience, including policymakers, healthcare providers, nutrition educators, and federal nutrition program operators, consumer-friendly resources (some in Spanish) are available on Dietaryguidelines.gov.

Expenditures on Children by Families

Expenditures on Children by Families, also known as the Cost of Raising a Child, provides estimates of the cost of raising children from birth through age 17 for major budgetary components. The report, issued periodically, is based on data from the federal government’s Consumer Expenditure Survey, the most comprehensive source of information available on household expenditures.