Major Projects of CNPP

Below are brief descriptions of the major work products of CNPP and how interns may help accomplish these activities.

MyPyramid

Created by CNPP and released by USDA in 2005, MyPyramid is the highly successful update to the original Food Guide Pyramid. MyPyramid incorporates the science-based recommendations of the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and translates nutrient recommendations into food groups and household measurements. MyPyramid provides consumers with a framework for selecting the types and amounts of foods for a nutritionally adequate diet and emphasizes the importance of physical activity in the daily lives of Americans.

MyPyramid is made up of personalized, motivational, and educational tools to help consumers more effectively implement the Dietary Guidelines. MyPyramid print materials and MyPyramid.gov include MyPyramid Plan, MyPyramid Tracker, MyPyramid for Kids, MiPirámide, MyPyramid for Moms, and the MyPyramid Planner. To date, there have been over 5 billion hits on MyPyramid.gov and over 3 million registered uses of its tools.


Dietary Guidelines for Americans

The Secretaries of USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are required by law to publish jointly, at least every 5 years, the report: Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Released on January 12, 2005, the sixth edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the cornerstone of federal nutrition policy and education, supports two pillars of the Healthier US Initiative — nutrition and physical activity. Currently, CNPP is leading the process for developing the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Interns at CNPP have contributed to this area by working on technical information that could be used in the development of nutrition guidance. For example, CNPP derived food group and subgroup composites that are used in policy. These composites were used to assess the adequacy of the MyPyramid food intake patterns as they were developed. CNPP interns have worked on additional in-depth research in this area by assigning foods that have dairy equivalents to specific food categories and sub-categories.


Nutrition Evidence Library

CNPP’s web-based Nutrition Evidence Library is designed to provide systematic reviews that summarize large bodies of research findings in a certain topic area and may include various types of studies with comparable dietary interventions. Defined criteria are used to assess the quality of reports and studies. The most enduring and useful systematic reviews are regularly updated to incorporate new evidence over time.

The Dietary Guideline for Americans are the blueprints for policy development in government nutrition programs. Historically, members of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee developed these science-based recommendations through an examination of the current scientific research using a critical review approach. The evidence-based decision-making process is a state-of-the-art, thorough, comprehensive examination of the scientific literature that serves as a transparent method of evaluating research, which allows other individuals to use the same process and come to the same conclusions. This method is quickly being recognized as the gold standard for developing public health guidance. CNPP’s Nutrition Evidence Library contributes to this process.


Healthy Eating Index

The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) is a measure of diet quality that assesses conformance to Federal dietary guidance—a “report card,” so-to-speak, on Americans’ adherence to the Dietary Guidelines. USDA’s primary use of the HEI is to monitor the diet quality of the U.S. population and the low-income subpopulation. For this purpose CNPP uses the data collected via 24-hour recalls of dietary intake in national surveys.

The Center created the original HEI in 1995. The Center revised it in 2006 using a Federal working group, with members from the National Cancer Institute and the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, to reflect the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The HEI-2005 is described in a fact sheet and in a technical report on its development and evaluation. Population scores for 2001-2002 and 1994-96 are reported in an issue of Nutrition Insight. The HEI is used extensively by nutrition researchers and economists.


USDA Food Plans

The USDA Food Plans are representative market baskets of foods that serve as national standards for a nutritious diet. These market baskets specify the type and quantity of foods that people could consume at home to obtain a nutritious diet. The four food plans are the Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans. Each represents a nutritious diet at a different cost.


The Thrifty Food Plan

CNPP is responsible for the development of the USDA Food Plans, including the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) that serves as the nutritional basis for food stamp benefit levels. The TFP specifies quantities of different types of food that households may purchase to provide nutritious meals and snacks at relatively low cost. CNPP is updating the 1999 TFP to reflect current dietary guidance as formulated in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. CNPP is completing revisions to the market baskets of the TFP. These market baskets consist of the foods with which a low-cost, nutritious menu can be prepared. The revised TFP was released in 2007. The Center has begun preliminary work on the next update of the food plans for release after the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.


The Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans

These plans serve a number of purposes. For example, the Low-Cost Food Plan is used often by bankruptcy courts to determine the portion of a debtor’s income to allocate to necessary food expenses. The values of the Moderate-Cost and Liberal Food Plans are used by the Department of Defense to determine the Basic Allowance for Subsistence rates for enlistees. CNPP updated these plans in 2007. The methods used to update the Thrifty Food Plan were applied to the update of these higher cost plans.


Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply and the Interactive Food Supply

Together, CNPP and USDA’s Economic Research Service produce a complete picture of the foods and nutrients in the U.S. food supply. Whereas the Economic Research Service calculates the amounts of several hundred foods available for human consumption in the United States, CNPP estimates the amounts (on per capita per day) of food energy and 27 nutrients and food components available for human consumption. CNPP’s system, called the Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply Series, dating back to 1909, provides data that are used for monitoring the potential of the food supply to meet nutritional needs of Americans; for examining the amount of nutrients available for the major food groups; for examining relationships between food supplies, diet, and health; and for examining dietary trends of Americans. For example, these data show that on a per person and per day basis, Americans are consuming more calories than they did 10 years ago (4000 kcal versus 3600 kcal)—more calories than are needed for nutritional health.


Expenditures on Children by Families

Since 1960, USDA has provided annual figures of expenditures on children by families, also referred to as the “Cost of Raising Children” project. CNPP maintains this project. These annual figures are the only economic data that are provided by the Federal Government on the cost of raising children.

These figures are often used by States to determine and implement child support guidelines. Annual updates of these estimates are necessary to ensure the economic well-being of children, especially those receiving child support payments, many of whom live at or near the poverty level.

For more information, contact:

  Julia M. Dinkins, PhD
  Program Administration Specialist
  cnppstudentprogram@cnpp.usda.gov
  703-305-7600

Last Modified: 07/13/2009