How Much Do Humans Eat? The Numerical Breakdown Is Mind-Boggling
The human relationship to food is a complicated one. We obviously have to eat to survive, but for the most privileged humans, food humans, food is something to indulge in for fun rather than a necessity. There’s a real pleasure that comes from chowing down for the sheer joy of it, but it also comes with a lot of waste — and a harsh reminder that for many, food is a fuel that’s really hard to acquire.
Accordingly, food consumption by the numbers varies around the world — and the benefits people get out of the meals they eat differ widely. Here’s a taste of what food consumption looks like in America and around the world.
A Year in the United States
As of 2011, the average American adult eats 1,996 pounds of food per year. This number, calculated by economists at the United States Department of Agriculture, includes the 31 pounds of cheese Americans eat annually on average and the 85 pounds of fats and oils we consume. Luckily, it’s not just pounds of junk we put in our systems: The USDA’s data shows Americans eat about 273 pounds of fruit and 415 pounds of vegetables.
A Lifetime in the United States
Considering the averaged data above, and ingassuming that American adults consistently eat 1,996 pounds of food eeach year, that leads to a lifetime of literal tons of food. The average life expectancy for an American is 78.8 years — that means that by the time we die, we’ve likely consumed about 73,646 pounds of food. That’s basically digesting six elephants over the course of a lifetime.
Bring us all the food please.
A Minute in the United States
Despite all the food we eat, we spend a surprisingly smasmall amount of time actually consuming it. In 2011 a research team led by USDA economist Karen Hamrick examined survey data collected between 2006 and 2008 by the Economic Research Service and the National Cancer Institute, discovering that on an average day Americans aged 15 or older spend 67 minutes a day only eating and drinking. They also found that Americans spent an additional 23.5 minutes eating while doing something else and 63 minutes drinking while doing something else.
North Americans consume the most calories
In Calories Around the World
Numbers collected by Our World in Data, a database project produced at the University of Oxford, reveal that, the global average daily intake of calories has steadily increased from 1961 to (at least) 2013. While the breakdown shows that thile the breakdown shows that the caloric supply in Europe and Oceania has remained pretty consistent for the past 50 years, the caloric supply in North America rose until it rose until it plateaued in 2000, and in Asia and Africa, those numbers continue to rise.
In North America, the average is 3,663 kilocalories a person per day, while in Europe it is 3,367, in Oceania it’s 3,216, in South America it’s 3,027, in Asia it’s 2,779, and in Africa it’s 2,624.
While millions of people still don’t receive enough food to live a healthy life, these calorie counts do show that when it comes to food suppply, this century is more equal than the last.
In Protein Around the World
There’s been a steady rise in global consumption in protein as well, with the daily average rising from 61 grams in 1961 to 81 grams in 2014. This increase has predominantly happened in Africa, Asia, and South America while consumption has leveled out in Europe, Oceania, and North America — the per capita supply of protein in North America is about 60 percent higher than it is in Africa. As of 2013, North Americans, the daily intake is about 109 grams of protein, in Europe and Oceania it’s approximately 101 grams, in South America it’s 86 grams, in Asia it’s 77 grams, and in Africa it’s 69 grams.
In the United States, huge amounts of protein come from the consumption of animals. The average American eats about 185 pounds of meat and poultry a year.
Written by Sarah Sloat
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