ABSTRACT
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are the cornerstone of federal nutrition policy in the U.S. Nutrition programs use the Dietary Guidelines as the basis of the nutrition standards; thus programs such as Food Stamps, School Lunch/School Breakfast, and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) use the dietary guidelines in developing program services. In addition, all nutrition education programs at the federal level must have messages consistent with the Dietary Guidelines. As a result, the impact of the Dietary Guidelines is broad. It is estimated that one of every five Americans participates in at least one federal nutrition program.
