I just finished reading (for the third time) a recent post on the ethicurean.com site about the increase of food and calories from 1970 to 2006. Even though we all know we’re eating more food now than ever before, two telling charts clearly reinforce this data supplied by the USDA Economic Research Service.
Based on what I think is a fairly complicated system that includes the caloric counts of more than 200 basic foods, plus larger food groups, the results definitely target the culprits. For what it’s worth, food spoilage and processing losses are taken into account in the study.
According to the researchers, Americans are consuming 500 more calories a day now than they did just 25 years ago. Some blame has gone to larger portions, deep fried and processed foods, larger serving plates and also the higher calorie count of cheap food. All these reasons are unfortunately true.
The article’s second chart is the most telling, and yet it’s not new information. It shows a breakdown of the high-calorie jump in the same time period. Not surprisingly, dairy, vegetables and fruits have remained quite level. The first of the culprits, to a lesser extent, are meat, eggs and dairy.
The really bad guys (surprise, surprise) are added sugars, added fats and flour and cereal products. I’m quite positive that this includes deep fried and highly processed nutritionally defunct food loaded with empty calories. The good news is that the chart does show a slight reduction in sugar and fat production in the last few years. Surely those numbers will continue to drop as consumer preferences are well reflected in the increased sales of healthier foods.
Take a look at these interesting charts and the information supplied by the USDA at ethicurean.com.
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