The New York Times had an interesting article this weekend looking at the Agricultural Department's historical data of food availability -- which is the amount of food produced for the average American consumer. This is a pretty good, although not perfect, analogue for how much the average American ate over the same period. The basic lay of the land won't shock anymore: Between 1970 and 2006, food availability...went up! Also, Americans got fatter. But the specifics of how it went up, and in what categories, are surprising. I used the data to make the following graph showing the change in weekly food consumption (or "availability") between 1970 and 2006:
Some of those differences may seem fairly minor. But remember, these are weekly numbers. So .2 pounds more meat per week is 10.8 pounds more meat consumed per year (in total, we consume 156 pounds of meat a year, which is pretty incredible if you think about it). A half pound more fat per week comes out to 26 more pounds of pure fat consumed per person, per year. Yech.There's some good news in here, too, though. We're eating more vegetables, though still not enough. We're eating more fruits, though much of that is coming in juices, drinks, and sweetener. But the end result is still rather depressing: We're eating more. There are a lot of increases here, but few cutbacks. And, unsurprisingly, we're a fatter country than we were in the 70s.
Some of those differences may seem fairly minor. But remember, these are weekly numbers. So .2 pounds more meat per week is 10.8 pounds more meat consumed per year (in total, we consume 156 pounds of meat a year, which is pretty incredible if you think about it). A half pound more fat per week comes out to 26 more pounds of pure fat consumed per person, per year. Yech.There's some good news in here, too, though. We're eating more vegetables, though still not enough. We're eating more fruits, though much of that is coming in juices, drinks, and sweetener. But the end result is still rather depressing: We're eating more. There are a lot of increases here, but few cutbacks. And, unsurprisingly, we're a fatter country than we were in the 70s. 
