While MyPyramid and the Dietary Guidelines give overall information on following a healthy, balanced diet, they cannot give detailed, case-by-case advice tailored to each consumer's preferences.
Instead, they rely on consumers looking at the nutritional panels on the foods they buy or, where these are not available (for restaurant meals, for example), researching the nutritional content elsewhere.
Known as the 'What's in the food you eat search-tool', the database contains 60-nutrient profiles for more than 13,000 foods.
It could help consumers to identify problem areas where they are not meeting daily recommendations, so that they can adjust their diet accordingly or else take dietary supplements to bridge the gap.
As the data is organized according to common portion sizes and weights, it may also help consumers cut back on the amount of a particular food they eat, if it does not deliver nutrients in proportion to calories or fat content.
Sixty-four percent of American adults are classified as obese (body mass index, or BMI over 30) or overweight (BMI over 25), and 16 percent of children are overweight.
For these, and other individuals wishing to follow a healthful diet, the ARS nutritionalists adapted one of their key research products, the USDA Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies, a technical database for nutrition researchers, to make the information available and accessible for the public.