How much do we actually eat every year?

The next question this blog will seek to answer is how much do we actually eat in a day? In a year? It’s a good question isn’t it? How much does a carrot weigh? How much does a potatoe weigh? How many ounces, grams or pounds of tomatoes in that spaghetti sauce? And how much does the spaghetti itself weight? That’s what I intend to find out! Investigative work… GO!

The amount most commonly used : 2,175 pounds

« The average American consumes about 2,175 pounds of food per person per year, which provide about 3,600 Calories of food energy per day. This daily intake contrasts with the worldwide average of 2,700 Calories. » source :http://144.16.65.194/hpg/envis/doc97html/ecofood1030.html

2,175 pounds. That’s the number often used as the average yearly intake for Americans based on caloric intake. In this case, we've taken this out of a report written by scholars from the US and Italy from which this citation is taken. Let’s see what others say.

Start from the Canadian Food Guide

We all know the Canadian Food Guide. Oh yes! That same chart that we often gazed at when we were kids because it looked like a Rainbow which instead of carrying Lucky Charms carried all which is nutritious (and kinda wished it wasn’t… back then anyway!). Our Good friend from Red State Green, which we quoted yesterday, has given an exemple of daily intake needed for an adult human using the recommended portions in the CFG.

So if we tally it up, that means :

372 kg of veggies and fruit.

41 kg of grain products

23 kg of soy beans or 182.5 Litres of milk equivalent

82 kg of meat (chicken)

Source : http://thesietch.org/mysietch/greenspree/2007/07/17/self-sufficiency/

In total, that would mean569.8 kgs. If we multiply that by 2.2 we would get 1139.6 pounds, about half of what the generally used term says. Now let’s turn to the USDA to see what they say.

USDA

The USDA has written an agriculture factbook, which seems to be quite rigourous and complete.They have even showed evolution in food consumption of the past 50 years. But here’s what the daily averages are today for American:

Meats: 195 lbs

Eggs : 250 x 50 grams= 12,5 kgs = 27.5 lbs

Dairy Products: 593 lbs

Fruits and Veggies: 707 lbs

Grain : 199 lbs

So once again, if we add all that up, that gives us 1721.5 lbs. So somewhere between the previous two answers. This last answer is, however, the average actual intake (unhealthy), but it does serve to give us a better idea of how much we eat, at least in the USA.

Also, the very interesting picture is a break-down of where money goes when you buy a typical supermarket food, it was taken from the USDA factbook.

Source: http://www.usda.gov/factbook/chapter2.pdf