Women’s Nutrition Statistics: What the Data Shows About How Women Eat

Women get more nutrition advice than almost anyone, but very little of it shows what women actually eat. How much fiber and protein does the average woman get? How far short do calcium, vitamin D and iron fall?

How much of a typical day’s calories comes from ultra-processed food, and how many women take supplements?

This page gathers the most reliable answers in one place, from the USDA’s What We Eat in America survey, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the National Institutes of Health and peer-reviewed studies. It’s written for women 25 and up.

Most of the national data covers adults 20 and older, so age groups are listed wherever the source breaks them out. Intake numbers are averages from food and drinks on a single day and don’t include supplements unless noted.

Every figure links to its original source at the bottom of the page. Data last checked November 2026.

Jump to a sectionIn this article15 sections

1. Key Women’s Nutrition Statistics at a Glance
2. Fiber: How Far Women Fall Short
3. Protein Intake in Women by Age
4. Calcium Intake and the Midlife Bone Gap
5. Vitamin D: Intake vs. Blood Levels
6. Iron Intake and Iron Deficiency
7. Fruit and Vegetable Intake vs. Guidelines
8. Ultra-Processed Food in Women’s Diets
9. Added Sugar and Sodium vs. the Limits
10. Diet Quality: Healthy Eating Index Scores
11. Dietary Supplement Use Among Women
12. What These Numbers Mean for You
13. How to Cite These Statistics
14. Sources
15. Frequently Asked Questions

Key Women’s Nutrition Statistics at a Glance

• U.S. women 20 and older eat an average of 15.0 grams of fiber a day, about 60% of the 25-gram target for women 19 to 50.^1,3
• That works out to about 8.5 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories, compared with the recommended 14 grams.^1,3
• Women average 65.6 grams of protein a day, about 15% of their calories.^1,2
• The 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines now set protein at 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight, about 82 to 109 grams a day for a 150-pound woman.⁴
• Women get an average of 803 mg of calcium a day from food, below the 1,000 to 1,200 mg they need.^1,5
• 74% of women aged 51 to 65 get less calcium from food than the estimated average requirement.⁸
• Women get just 4.0 mcg (160 IU) of vitamin D a day from food, compared with a recommended 15 mcg (600 IU).^1,6
• 38.6% of U.S. girls and young women aged 12 to 21 had iron deficiency, and most of them didn’t have anemia.¹⁰
• Only 14.5% of women eat enough fruit and 12.4% eat enough vegetables.¹⁴
• Ultra-processed foods make up 52.7% of adult women’s calories.¹⁵
• Women average 2,750 mg of sodium a day, above the limit of less than 2,300 mg.^1,4
• Women score 59.7 out of 100 on the Healthy Eating Index, which measures how closely a diet matches federal guidelines.¹⁷
• 66.1% of women 20 and older took a dietary supplement in the past 30 days, compared with 53.9% of men.¹⁸

Fiber: How Far Women Fall Short

Fiber is the clearest gap in women’s diets. The recommended amount is 14 grams per 1,000 calories, which works out to 25 grams a day for women 19 to 50 and 21 grams for women 51 and older.³ In the August 2021–August 2023 What We Eat in America survey, no age group of women came close:¹

Age	Fiber eaten	Target
20–29	16.3 g	25 g
30–39	15.0 g	25 g
40–49	15.8 g	25 g
50–59	14.4 g	25 g / 21 g
60–69	14.4 g	21 g
70+	14.2 g	21 g

• The survey’s age groups don’t line up exactly with the fiber targets, which change at age 51, so the 50–59 row shows both.^1,3
• Women 20 and older ate 1,760 calories and 15.0 grams of fiber a day on average, or about 8.5 grams per 1,000 calories. That’s roughly 60% of the recommended density.^1,3
• Fiber intake barely changes with age. Women in their 20s eat the most, and women 70 and older the least.¹

To find your own number, see how much fiber per day for women, and for easy ways to close the gap, use my high fiber foods list.

Protein Intake in Women by Age

On average, women eat more protein than the long-standing minimum of 46 grams a day (0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight). But intake drops with age, right when it starts to matter more for keeping muscle.¹

Age	Protein	Calories
20–29	72.7 g	1,939
30–39	66.8 g	1,757
40–49	68.3 g	1,817
50–59	64.6 g	1,723
60–69	60.5 g	1,673
70+	60.7 g	1,657

• Protein made up about 15% of women’s calories on average.²
• The 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines raised the target to 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. For a 150-pound (68 kg) woman, that’s about 82 to 109 grams, well above the 65.6-gram average.⁴
• Older women are most likely to fall short of even the old minimum: 11% of women 71 and older had usual protein intakes below the estimated average requirement in 2007–2010.¹²
• In a 2024 NHANES analysis, women 80 and older got 12.9% of their calories from protein, compared with 17.0% for women 60 to 69.¹³

Spreading protein across the day is often easier than one big serving at dinner. I break that down in how much protein per meal, and cover the midlife changes in protein in menopause.

Calcium Intake and the Midlife Bone Gap

Women need 1,000 mg of calcium a day from 19 to 50 and 1,200 mg from 51 on.⁵ Food alone falls short at every age, and the gap widens after 50, when needs go up:¹

Age	Calcium eaten	RDA
20–29	825 mg	1,000 mg
30–39	826 mg	1,000 mg
40–49	832 mg	1,000 mg
50–59	776 mg	1,000 / 1,200 mg
60–69	751 mg	1,200 mg
70+	809 mg	1,200 mg

• In NHANES 2011–2016, 48% of women aged 40 to 50 and 74% of women aged 51 to 65 got less calcium from food than the estimated average requirement. Supplement use narrowed the gap.⁸
• About 32% of women take a dietary supplement that contains calcium.⁵
• The NIH puts women’s average calcium intake at 842 mg from food and 1,009 mg once supplements are counted.⁵

For food-first ways to get there, see calcium-rich foods for women and my bone health foods guide. For how fast bone loss speeds up around menopause, see my menopause statistics.

Vitamin D: Intake vs. Blood Levels

Vitamin D is the nutrient where food falls furthest behind the target. Sunlight and supplements make up much of the difference, so blood levels tell a different story than diet records.

Measure	Result	Source
From food, women 20+	4.0 mcg (160 IU)	1
RDA, ages 19–70	15 mcg (600 IU)	6
RDA, 71+	20 mcg (800 IU)	6
Below EAR from food	Over 97%	8

• Women’s vitamin D intake from food ranged from 3.8 to 4.4 mcg a day across age groups.¹
• More than 97% of women of childbearing age and of menopausal age got less vitamin D from food than the estimated average requirement.⁸
• Blood tests look better. In NHANES 2011–2014, 5.0% of Americans (ages 1 and up) were at risk of vitamin D deficiency and 18.3% were at risk of inadequacy, using the National Academy of Medicine cutoffs.⁹
• Risk of deficiency peaked in adults aged 20 to 39, at 7.6%. People who took supplements or ate more vitamin D had lower rates.⁹

You’ll often see claims that most women are vitamin D deficient. I couldn’t trace that to national blood-test data using the standard cutoff, which puts the at-risk share closer to 1 in 20.

The bigger numbers you see online usually come from a higher cutoff (such as 30 ng/mL) or from intake records. The intake gap is real, so this page reports intake and blood levels separately.^8,9

For more on testing and supplements, see vitamin D for women over 40.

Iron Intake and Iron Deficiency

Iron needs are much higher before menopause because of monthly blood loss: 18 mg a day for women 19 to 50, then 8 mg from 51 on.⁷ Average intake from food stays close to 11 mg at every age, so younger women fall short while older women clear the bar:¹

Age	Iron eaten	RDA
20–29	11.5 mg	18 mg
30–39	11.2 mg	18 mg
40–49	11.3 mg	18 mg
50–59	10.9 mg	18 / 8 mg
60–69	10.4 mg	8 mg
70+	10.9 mg	8 mg

• Among nonpregnant U.S. females aged 12 to 21 (NHANES 2003–2020), 38.6% had iron deficiency (ferritin below 25 µg/L) and 6.3% had iron-deficiency anemia.¹⁰
• Most cases were hidden: 83.6% of those with iron deficiency didn’t have anemia, so a routine hemoglobin test would have missed them.¹⁰
• Using the stricter WHO cutoff (ferritin below 15 µg/L), 15.1% of nonpregnant women aged 20 to 44 had iron deficiency in NHANES 2003–2006 and 2017–2018.¹¹
• The NIH lists pregnant women and premenopausal women among the groups at risk of not getting enough iron.⁷

Fruit and Vegetable Intake vs. Guidelines

Only about 1 in 10 adults eats enough fruit or vegetables. Women do better than men, but most still fall short. Here’s the CDC’s 2019 national survey of adults:¹⁴

Group	Enough fruit	Enough vegetables
Women	14.5%	12.4%
Men	10.1%	7.6%
All adults	12.3%	10.0%

• The recommendations at the time were 1.5 to 2 cups of fruit and 2 to 3 cups of vegetables a day for adults.¹⁴
• Meeting the vegetable recommendation was highest among adults 51 and older (12.5%) and lowest among adults with low incomes (6.8%).¹⁴
• Low fruit and vegetable intake is one of the main reasons fiber stays low (see above).^1,14

Ultra-Processed Food in Women’s Diets

More than half of what adults eat comes from ultra-processed foods, the packaged, ready-to-eat products made mostly from industrial ingredients. The latest NCHS report found:¹⁵

Group	Share of calories
Adult women	52.7%
Adults 19–39	54.4%
Adults 40–59	52.6%
Adults 60+	51.7%

• The age rows include both women and men. The report found almost no difference between the sexes.¹⁵
• Adults’ share of calories from ultra-processed foods fell from 55.8% in 2013–2014 to 53.0% in August 2021–August 2023.¹⁵
• The biggest ultra-processed calorie sources for adults were sandwiches, including burgers (8.6% of calories), sweet bakery products (5.2%), sweetened drinks (4.4%) and savory snacks (3.4%).¹⁵
• The 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines tell Americans to limit highly processed foods, added sugars and refined carbohydrates.⁴

I explain how these foods tie into inflammation in ultra-processed foods and chronic inflammation, and what to eat instead in my anti-inflammatory diet guide for women over 40.

Added Sugar and Sodium vs. the Limits

In 2017–2018, U.S. women averaged 15 teaspoons of added sugar a day and men averaged 19, according to the CDC.¹⁶ The older guideline of less than 10% of calories works out to about 12 teaspoons on a 2,000-calorie diet.¹⁶

The 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines go further: they say no amount of added sugar is recommended and suggest keeping any single meal to 10 grams or less.⁴

Sodium runs over the limit of less than 2,300 mg a day at every age, most of all in younger women:^1,4

Age	Sodium	Over limit by
20–29	3,200 mg	900 mg
30–39	2,836 mg	536 mg
40–49	2,794 mg	494 mg
50–59	2,676 mg	376 mg
60–69	2,509 mg	209 mg
70+	2,472 mg	172 mg

• Across all women 20 and older, average sodium intake was 2,750 mg a day, about 20% over the limit.¹
• The guidelines note that highly active people may benefit from more sodium to replace what they lose in sweat.⁴

Diet Quality: Healthy Eating Index Scores

The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) scores a diet from 0 to 100 based on how well it matches the Dietary Guidelines. Women score higher than men, but still well short of the ideal. In NHANES 2017–March 2020 (ages 2 and up):¹⁷

Group	HEI-2020 score
Females	59.7
Males	55.9
Everyone	57.6

• A higher score means a diet closer to the guidelines. The score is based on food groups and limits, so it reflects diet quality, not calories.¹⁷
• In a study of adults 60 and older, total HEI scores didn’t differ by age, but women 80 and older scored lower on green vegetables and beans than women 60 to 69.¹³

Dietary Supplement Use Among Women

Women take supplements more than men, and use climbs steadily with age. The newest NCHS data (August 2021–August 2023) found:¹⁸

Group	Used any (past 30 days)
Women 20+	66.1%
Men 20+	53.9%
Adults 20–39	46.3%
Adults 40–59	60.3%
Adults 60+	75.9%

• The age rows include both women and men. 38.7% of adults took two or more supplements, rising to 56.4% among adults 60 and older.¹⁸
• Breaking it down by sex and age, the 2017–2018 survey found supplement use rose from 49.0% among women 20 to 39 to 80.2% among women 60 and older.¹⁹
• Supplement users had smaller nutrient gaps, especially for calcium and vitamin D.^8,9

If you’re deciding what’s worth taking, start with supplements for women over 50 or my guide to the best multivitamin for women over 40.

What These Numbers Mean for You

Here’s my take as a coach: most women aren’t short on calories. They’re short on the foods that carry fiber, calcium, vitamin D and iron. The data points to the same few gaps at every age.

Fiber sits around 15 grams, fruit and vegetables fall short for almost everyone, calcium drops just as needs go up after 50, and protein slides in later decades when it matters most for muscle.

So build from the basics: put a protein food at every meal, add one high-fiber food (beans, oats, berries, vegetables) at a time, and include a calcium-rich food most days.

Trade a few packaged snacks for whole foods instead of trying to overhaul everything at once. If you’re tired all the time or have heavy periods, ask your doctor about checking ferritin, not just hemoglobin.

And before adding supplements, talk with your doctor or pharmacist about which ones you actually need. For weight-related numbers, see my weight loss and obesity statistics.

How to Cite These Statistics

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Nutrient Intakes from Food and Beverages: Mean Amounts Consumed per Individual, by Gender and Age (Table 1). What We Eat in America, NHANES August 2021–August 2023.
2. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Energy Intakes: Percentages of Energy from Protein, Carbohydrate, Fat, and Alcohol, by Gender and Age (Table 5). What We Eat in America, NHANES August 2021–August 2023.
3. Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. National Academies Press, 2005.
4. U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030. January 2026.
5. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Calcium: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals.
6. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin D: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals.
7. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Iron: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals.
8. Devarshi PP, Legette LL, Grant RW, Mitmesser SH. Total estimated usual nutrient intake and nutrient status biomarkers in women of childbearing age and women of menopausal age. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2021;113(4):1042–1052.
9. Herrick KA, Storandt RJ, Afful J, et al. Vitamin D status in the United States, 2011–2014. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2019;110(1):150–157.
10. Weyand AC, Chaitoff A, Freed GL, et al. Prevalence of Iron Deficiency and Iron-Deficiency Anemia in US Females Aged 12–21 Years, 2003–2020. JAMA, 2023;329(24):2191–2193.
11. Exploring the Use of Iron and Hematologic Indicators for Surveillance of Iron Deficiency in Pregnant and Nonpregnant Women in the United States. Journal of Nutrition, 2025;155(6):1978–1986.
12. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Surveys Research Group. Usual Intake Distributions, Persons 71 Years and Over, 2007–2010 (Appendix E-2.3, 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Report).
13. Shea MK, Barger K, Rogers GT, et al. Dietary Intakes of Community-Dwelling Adults in the United States across Older Adulthood: NHANES 2015–March 2020. Journal of Nutrition, 2024;154(2):691–696.
14. Lee SH, Moore LV, Park S, Harris DM, Blanck HM. Adults Meeting Fruit and Vegetable Intake Recommendations — United States, 2019. MMWR, 2022;71(1):1–9.
15. Williams AM, Couch CA, Emmerich SD, Ogburn DF. Ultra-processed Food Consumption in Youth and Adults: United States, August 2021–August 2023. NCHS Data Brief No. 536, August 2025.
16. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Get the Facts: Added Sugars.
17. National Cancer Institute. Cancer Trends Progress Report: Healthy Eating (Healthy Eating Index).
18. Stierman B, Couch CA, Gahche JJ, Mishra S. Dietary Supplement Use: United States, August 2021–August 2023. NCHS Data Brief No. 561, May 2026.
19. Mishra S, Stierman B, Gahche JJ, Potischman N. Dietary Supplement Use Among Adults: United States, 2017–2018. NCHS Data Brief No. 399, February 2021.

Frequently Asked Questions

This page summarizes published research and government data for education only. It isn’t medical advice. Talk with your doctor or a registered dietitian before making big changes to your diet or starting supplements, especially if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, have kidney, heart, thyroid or digestive disease, take prescription medicines, or have a history of disordered eating.

See a doctor if you have ongoing fatigue, shortness of breath, unusually heavy periods, a fast heartbeat or unexplained weight loss, since these can signal iron deficiency or another condition that needs testing. Don’t take high-dose iron, vitamin D or calcium without medical advice. This page is not a substitute for personal care from a qualified professional.