Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) encourage increased whole grains (WG) and dietary fiber intake while limiting refined grains (RG). This study modeled how different grain food patterns affect nutrient and energy intakes compared to USDA ideal and typical food patterns within a 2,000 kcal/day diet.
Key Points:
- Replacing USDA ideal grain servings with 1 WG, 3 RG, and 2 high-fiber grains resulted in:
- Increased dietary fiber (+47%; +11.5 g/day) and folate (+68%; +429 µg DFE/day).
- Slight increases in sodium (+5.1%; +89 mg/day) and energy (+1.5%; +31 kcal/day).
- Consuming all grains as WG led to higher dietary fiber (+6.5%; +1.6 g/day) but lower folate (-47.8%; -301 µg DFE/day).
- Using all grains as RG decreased dietary fiber (-17.1%; -4.2 g/day) and folate (-26.3%; -166 µg DFE/day) while reducing total fat and energy intake.
- All models provided lower energy than the USDA typical food pattern.
Certain grain patterns, including refined grains, align closely with USDA recommendations for nutrient and energy intake, supporting their role in a balanced diet.
