Such oils contributed 402 calories on their own to our daily diet in 2010 (although the Center for Science in the Public Interest, in its analysis of the USDA data, notes that the increase in fat consumption may not be as steep as it appears, because the number of manufacturers reporting data jumped suddenly in 2000). Most of the fats we consume are in the form of vegetable oils: soybean, corn, canola and other oils used as ingredients or in which foods are cooked. Meats, dairy and sweeteners provide smaller shares of our daily caloric intake than they did four decades ago then again, so do fruits and vegetables (7.9% in 2010 versus 9.2% in 1970). Nearly half of those calories come from just two food groups: flours and grains (581 calories, or 23.4%) and fats and oils (575, or 23.2%), up from a combined 37.3% in 1970. (A 40-year-old man of average height and weight who’s moderately active, for instance, needs 2,400 calories a 40-year-old woman with corresponding characteristics needs 1,850 calories.) That’s more than most adults need to maintain their current weight, according to the Mayo Clinic’s calorie calculator. (Specifically, we used food availability adjusted for waste, spoilage and other loss as a proxy for consumption.) While the nation’s eating habits don’t change all that much from year to year, looking at them over 40 or more years shows some significant changes.īroadly speaking, we eat a lot more than we used to: The average American consumed 2,481 calories a day in 2010, about 23% more than in 1970. So how do Americans really eat, and how has that changed over time? We analyzed data from the USDA’s Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System, or FADS, to find out. And while 73% of Americans said they were very or fairly focused on healthy and nutritious eating, 58% said that most days they probably should be eating healthier. pay more attention to eating healthy foods today compared with 20 years ago – the same percentage who said Americans’ actual eating habits are less healthy today than they were 20 years ago. ![]() In that survey, 54% of Americans said people in the U.S. ![]() Which is about what you’d expect, judging from the results of Pew Research Center’s recent survey on food and nutrition attitudes. And while the average American eats the equivalent of 1.2 gallons of yogurt a year, he or she also consumes 36 pounds of cooking oils – more than three times as much as in the early 1970s.Īmericans’ eating habits, in short, are all over the place, at least according to our analysis of U.S. Their diets include less sugar than in prior decades but a lot more corn-derived sweeteners. They drink less milk – especially whole milk – and eat less ice cream, but they consume way more cheese. Americans eat more chicken and less beef than they used to.
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