DGA Food Group Nutrition Fun Facts and Recipes for October

 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Food Group 

Nutrition Fun Facts and Recipes! 

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans were updated this year on January 7, 2026. Healthy eating still features five food groups; keeping in mind that most people in the world are lactose intolerant, so many people have water in stead of dairy milk. There are lots of alternative milk products too, such as oat milk, soy milk or almond milk.

 

In the five food groups, let's learn more about a specific food from each group starting with  seasonal NJ Farmer's Market picks for October:

1. Fruit - Apple
2. Vegetable - Pumpkin
3. Whole Grain - Oats
4. Dairy - Yogurt
5. Protein - Pork  

Fruit Apple Fun Fact: "One average sized apple contains almost twice the amount of fiber as one serving of a fiber supplement. It also tastes a lot better, too. Why bother with supplements when you can eat a delicious apple?" (1)

This is true; it may take three fiber gummies to provide 5 grams of fiber! So if you only take one fiber gummy it will provide only 1.6g of fiber. One medium to large size apple (200g) contains 4.2 to 4.4 grams of fiber, which is an excellent source of fiber providing over 20% daily value of dietary fiber! (2) Food is Medicine! As they say, an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Apple video with recipes for apple stuffed pork tenderloin and apple crisp!

Veggie - Pumpkin Fun Fact: The largest ever pumpkin weighted in at 2,517.5 pounds and was grown in 2019 by Karl Haist of Clarence Center, New York. (3)

Whole Grain - Oats Fun Fact: As healthy as it is, most oats are still used for animal feed; only a small percentage of oat production in the USA is used as human food. (4) Most of the oats that are consumed by people are for oatmeal and oat flour. 

Dairy - Yogurt Fun Fact: "Greek yogurt did not originate in Greece! Although strained yogurt or straggisto is a staple dish in Greece, the term “Greek yogurt” was first made popular by a commercial yogurt company located in Greece, and later used by other U.S. and European yogurt companies. Britain is the only country that regulates the term, where yogurt must be produced in Greece to carry the title." (5)

Protein - Pork Fun Facts: Pork is over the top an excellent source of B vitamins such as Niacin (vitamin B3), Thiamin (vitamin B1), Riboflavin (vitamin B2), and Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine); pork is also is also an excellent source of the important immune fighter mineral, Zinc!

References

1) Farm to Fork - NJ Apples: America's Heartland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTldDNqWosg&t=12s Accessed 10/4/2026. Thank you Parlee Farms in Massachusetts! 

2) USDA Agricultural Research. Food Data Central. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/1750340/nutrients Fuji Apples. Accessed 10/4/2026.

3)  Farmers' Almanac. Quick Reference Pumpkin Facts. Accessed 10/4/2026. https://www.farmersalmanac.com/little-known-pumpkin-facts 

4) Northern Crops Institute. Oats. https://www.northern-crops.com/crops-of-the-northern-region/2014/3/21/oats Accessed 10/4/2026.

5) Harvard T.H. Chan the Nutrition Source. Yogurt. Accessed 10/4/2026. https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/food-features/yogurt/ Thank you Harvard T.H. Chan on Yogurt!

6) Pork Nutrition. https://pork.org/nutrition/pork-nutrition/ Accessed 10/4/2026. 

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