The average American eats a little less beef — and way more cheese — today than in 1972.
Watch the rapid evolution of the American diet over 40 years, in one GIF
Libby Nelson was Vox’s editorial director, politics and policy, leading coverage of how government action and inaction shape American life. Libby has more than a decade of policy journalism experience, including at Inside Higher Ed and Politico. She joined Vox in 2014.
At Flowing Data, Nathan Yau collected 40 years of data on Americans’ eating habits from the federal Food Availability Data System, which tracks how much Americans eat. Here’s 40 years of diet evolution in just over 10 seconds:
Some foods are perennial favorites. Apples, the unchallenged No. 1 fruit for more than 40 years, are as American as apple pie. Gluten-free might be trendy, but wheat flour isn’t budging from the top of the “grains” list. Consumption of seafood and pork has been fairly steady.
But in other ways, Americans’ eating habits have changed dramatically. It’s worth slowing down and speeding up the animation at Flowing Data to see these trends unfold:
The demonization of full-fat dairy: Whole milk used to be the most popular dairy product in America. Then during the 1970s, fat became anathema, and whole milk started losing ground to 2 percent. Some researchers are now arguing that full-fat dairy might not be that bad after all, and there’s little evidence that people who chose low-fat options ended up better off.
Kale and spinach take over the world: 1995 was a landmark year: Dark green vegetables (spinach and kale) passed iceberg lettuce for the first time. By 2013, when America was arguably hitting peak kale, dark leafy greens were more frequently eaten than any vegetable but potatoes.
Less beef, more chicken: In 1992, the beef industry adopted the slogan “Beef — it’s what’s for dinner.” And that was true for 12 years, until 2004, when Americans started eating more chicken instead. (The US Department of Agriculture says the switch occurred even earlier.) Since then, beef has continued to drop.
Cheese and extra cheese: Americans eat three times as much cheese today as they did in 1970. Much of that increase has been in “Italian cheese” — Parmesan, mozzarella, ricotta, Romano, and provolone — the kind of cheese you’re most likely to find on pizza. Americans’ great cheese pig-out has been urged by the federal government. The New York Times reported in 2010 that a branch of the USDA devoted to promoting American dairy products measures its success in pounds of cheese served. It’s been a good few decades from that regard.
More of everything: Aside from sprinkling cheese on everything, these charts might seem like good news. Swapping in dark greens for iceberg lettuce and chicken for beef are healthy substitutions. But Americans are also just eating more: 500 more calories per day than in the 1970s, and 800 calories per day more than in the late 1950s. Most of those calories come from fats, oils, and refined grains, according to the USDA.
Yau’s post is based on a similar project about how the British eat. The categories for that one are a little bit different but arguably even more fascinating: People in the UK eat a lot less liver than they used to, and potatoes’ popularity has fallen more rapidly than in the US.
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