Nutrition Guidelines
Nutrition guidelines, such as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) and Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), provide direction for creating healthy menus for senior nutrition programs. Dive into these guidelines and learn how to meet the basic requirements of Title III-C nutrition programs.
Data and Research
- USDA Databases — Research on supplements and food
- Nutrient Recommendations: DRIs — NIH tables and reports
Infographics
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans Toolkit for Health Professionals — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) handouts available in English and Spanish
- Eat Healthy to Be Healthy — Infographic on how the DGAs improve health
- One Day at a Time — Sample one day menu of nutrient dense meals
- One Food or Beverage at a Time — Examples of typical foods and more nutrient dense alternatives
- One Meal at a Time — Comparison of a meal and a more nutrient dense version
- Saturated Fats — Top sources and average intake
- Sodium — How to reduce sodium intake
- Sodium — Top sources and average intake
From DietaryGuidelines.gov:
- The Guidelines — Infographic of 2020-2025 DGAs
- Top Sources of Added Sugars — Top sources and average intakes
- Consumer Resources — Brochures, handouts, and printed materials
- Dietary Intakes Compared to Recommendations — Data on consumption for 60+
Quick Guides
- Quick Tips: Nutrition Guidelines — Information and resources related to common questions
about OAA Title III-C nutrient requirements - Dietary Reference Intakes: Too Little, Too Much? — Learn about DRIs and how to apply them within the Older Americans Act (OAA) Title III-C programs
Guides
- 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans — Current guidelines with the theme “Make Every Bite Count” from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
- Nutrition Requirements of the Older Americans Act — Basics nutrition responsibilities for Title III-C programs
- Purchasing Foodservice Software Guide — Considerations around nutrient analysis software and comparison of software features
Fact Sheets
- From DietaryGuidelines.gov:
- Dietary Guidelines— Top ten things you need to know about the Dietary Guidelines for Americans
- Customizing the DGA Framework — Foods, food groups, preparation styles
- Healthy Eating Across the Lifespan — How DGAs promote health
- Make Every Bite Count Overview — One-page DGA explainer
- From the Nutrition & Aging Resource Center:
- Calcium — Fact sheet from NIH
Tools & Toolkits
- Adult Day Care Food Allergy Fact Sheets — Toolkit for managing food allergies in adult day cares operating the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and common questions about food allergies, from the Institute of Child Nutrition
- Food Substitution List — Sample resource list to use when changing menu items
- Online DRI Calculator — Tool to calculate daily nutrient recommendations from USDA
- Food Service Guidelines — Implementation toolkit from CDC
- FoodData Central — USDA's data system to search for the nutrients a food contains