In this week’s Field Report: A push to improve federal food purchasing heats up, the first food-focused COP kicks off, dust storms accelerate, and new evidence suggests that fair-trade certifications are failing to protect farmworkers.
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April 5, 2011
In the past 20 years, obesity rates rose dramatically in the U.S. In many states nearly a third of adults are now obese. Where exactly are Americans getting the calories to grow their girths? How many more calories are being consumed than in previous decades?
The United State Department of Agriculture’s loss-adjusted food availability data is one window into where those extra calories come from. While the data does not quite show what is on the average American’s plate, it does provide a pretty good picture of what the population has been consuming since the 1970s. Data on the availability of different foods per capita is adjusted for losses like spoilage and waste. Take for example the produce that goes bad at grocery stores or the leftovers tossed into the compost. By calculating such food losses, the USDA data closely approximates the amount of food that actually makes its way from the farm into the average American stomach. (Restaurant waste is not included, however; read the full documentation for more detail.)
The below infographic illustrates “calories available per day per capita” as a plate of different food groups that grow or shrink depending on how many calories were produced that year. What does the data show? Between 1970 and 1980, calorie intake is relatively stable, rising only 1.2 percent. Between 1980 and 1990 consumption jumped 9.6 percent. Then, from 1990 to 2008, the last year with data available, the number of calories rises another 11.4 percent for a grand a total of 2,673 calories available per person–23.3 percent more than consumed in 1970.
This post is part of an ongoing partnership between Civil Eats and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism News21 course on food reporting. Over the next several months we will regularly feature stories from students in the class.
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Incidentally, look how much grain and sugar consumption has gone up in the same time period!!! White flour, sugar, and vegetable oils are the things that need to be removed from our diets for weight loss.
It sure doesn't seem like saturated fat is the problem. Looks to me like grains, canola oil and sugar are the culprits - two of which are *supposedly* the healthy options, according to most "experts".
Interesting graphic for sure, but not surprising to some of us.
However, I'd like to point out that simply looking at calories can be a little misleading. Gram for gram, fruits and vegetables are less calorie dense than grains, meat, and dairy. Thus, even people who eat a lot of fruits and veggies may still get the majority of their calories from these other sources.
This would allow the user to see simple trends and connect those trends directly to other events, such as policy changes or technological "advances."
You have to have Java installed on your computer. Thanks for reading!
Paula
Certainly the QUALITY of those calories isn't helping, either.
Also, interesting to note we eat more veggie calories since then, but of course more sugar, fat and meat too. Hmmmmm.
Also, if you extend the graph back to 1900, you'd see calories were at 1980's levels in the 1910'a, with a much higher percentage of grain consumption - yet the population was much thinner. (courtesy of USDA via Megan McArdle, http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/04/are-grains-making-us-fat/237030/) and (http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/publications/foodsupply/foodsupply1909-2004report.pdf)
This study needs to be extended back further to get to meaningful answers.
Make no mistake, meats, dairy, and eggs are processed foods with lots of added hormones, antibiotics and plenty of biocides to keep the animals from dying before being killed, that are then processed further into other value-added items such as branded taco meats, frozen dinners, crackers, cookies, cupcakes, Jell-o, fast food franchises, etc.
As for the veggies, I wonder how much of those come in the form of potatoes and of those how much are fried, hashed, or baked then slathered in sour cream, cheese, and bacon. Oh, maybe garlic-mashed where potatoes make up the least of the calories...
And I know personally, my nut consumption went way down when they were being vilified as being fatty but now that's the only thing I eat in the big bubble of "protein" (which is such as stupid category as all foods except sugars and some alcohols have protein) so I do wonder how much of the shift from plant protein to animal protein was within that circle.
I'd bet there is a huge shift too in the consumption of corn and soy products including soy protein used to supplement meat products (yes, in all irony those who consume animal products are actually a much bigger demand on soy production than those who do not).
We are able to make different personal choices despite what is heaped on our plates by Big Farma (though that does include voting and even getting involved in policy). That first choice often means getting educated not just in nutrition but also in how we get played into thinking something has it by those trying to sell it.
But yeah, it's not about the calories, or even calories in, calories out; it is about the nutrition! Calories are just the vehicle nutrition arrives in and a lot of calories these days are in Hummers instead of Bicycles. While the Hummer fills up our garages (needing bigger garages even) it doesn't get us very far before needing more inputs.