(NaturalNews) The average U.S. consumer eats significantly too much meat and grain, and not enough fruits or vegetables, according to data form the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Economic Research Service.
The USDA estimates food consumption by tracking how much food is produced and circulating through the U.S. food system ("food availability"), then adjusting that for losses such as spoilage, inedible parts of vegetables, and food that is cooked but not consumed. These values are then divided by the population to get an estimate of per-capita
consumption.
According to these figures, the average U.S. resident consumes 30 percent too much grain, primarily in the form of bread. The data given do not specify whether this is mostly whole or refined grains; if refined, it is possible that people are both overconsuming grain in general and underconsuming whole grain in particular.
Meat consumption is 20 percent higher than recommended.
"And the dietary recommendations aren't exactly skimpy on
meat," writes Tom Philpott on Grist.org.
In contrast, vegetable consumption is 20 percent too low, and
fruit consumption is a shocking 60 percent too low.
Dairy consumption is estimated at 40 percent too low, but the USDA's
dairy recommendations are controversial, as there are many other dietary sources of calcium, fat and protein.
The
USDA attributes U.S. overconsumption of calories in part to "supersizing of
food portions by food processors,
eating places, and cookbook authors." Yet as Philpott notes, federal policies bear much of the responsibility for U.S. dietary habits.
"The federal government has facilitated the abundant availability of meat in a variety of ways -- through massive subsidies of livestock feed crops like corn and soy, by looking the other way as meat packers consolidated and drove down the price of meat, and by allowing meat packers to externalize public-health
costs and environmental costs, and keep labor costs to a minimum at expense of worker safety," he writes.
"In short, the net effect of federal policy has been to encourage the public's appetite for meat, by creating an
environment in which cheap meat thrives."
Sources for this story include:
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-04-02-a-view-into-the-u.s.-diet; http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/March10/Features/TrackingACentury.htm.
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