Food & the Average American: What a Peculiar Relationship

What Are We Eating? What the Average American Consumes in a Year

The average American is 36.6 years old and eats 1,996.3 lbs. of food per year. The average man is 5’9” and weighs 190 lbs. The average woman is 5’4” and weighs 164 lbs.

Each year, Americans eat 85.5 lbs. of fats and oils. They eat 110 lbs. of red meat, including 62.4 lbs. of beef and 46.5 lbs. of pork. Americans eat 73.6 lbs. of poultry, including 60.4 lbs. of chicken. They eat 16.1 lbs. of fish and shellfish and 32.7 lbs. of eggs.

Americans eat 31.4 lbs. of cheese each year and 600.5 lbs. of non-cheese dairy products. They drink 181 lbs. of beverage milks. Americans eat 192.3 lbs. of flour and cereal products, including 134.1 lbs. of wheat flour. They eat 141.6 lbs. of caloric sweeteners, including 42 lbs. of corn syrup. Americans consume 56 lbs. of corn each year and eat 415.4 lbs. of vegetables. Every year, Americans eat 24 lbs. of coffee, cocoa and nuts. Americans eat 273.2 lbs. of fruit each year.

These foods include 29 lbs. of French fries, 23 lbs. of pizza and 24 lbs. of ice cream. Americans drink 53 gallons of soda each year, averaging about one gallon each week. Americans eat 24 lbs. of artificial sweeteners each year. They eat 2.736 lbs. of sodium, which is 47 percent more than recommended. Americans consume 0.2 lbs. of caffeine each year, about 90,700 mg. In total, Americans eat an average of 2,700 calories each day.

Visual Economics: Food Consumption in America

http://www.creditloan.com/blog/2010/07/12/food-consumption-in-america/#ixzz1Ygf9tLhx 

http://www.visualeconomics.com/ 

A few days ago, Harvard Harvard to USDA: Check out the Healthy Eating Plate  A direct response (or improvement as some may argue)

Compared to the official image of nutritional guidance from USDA -- My Plate (did you know there are different placemat color options?) -- how does the Harvard revision suit you?

Methinks it is a fine effort, certainly more easily decipherable than the old MyPyramid, and (beginning to be) nicely integrated in numerous food purchasing decisions. What might we improve for the next iteration?