The saying “you are what you eat” is usually just a reminder to eat good, healthy foods. If that were a literal assessment of people and their diets, the world would be a weird, dirty place because the average person eats a lot of questionable stuff. In fact, the average appetite is probably a lot weirder than you ever thought.
10. The average person consumes more than 25 kg of sugar per year
We spend most of our lives being told that we need to give up sugar. There’s sugar in everything, and if you eat too much sugar, your teeth will rot, you’ll become hyperactive, and then you’ll get fat, and then you’ll get diabetes. Sugar seems to be the cause of most of our illnesses. Or maybe it isn’t. The rules are changing, and nowadays we seem pretty sure that moderate natural sugars are fine, but maybe try to cut down on refined sugar and things like high-fructose corn syrup.
No matter where you get your sugar from, you may be surprised to learn how much of it we all consume. The numbers vary slightly from source to source, and when it comes to averages, it may not be surprising, but it looks like the average adult consumes between 25 and 30 kilograms of sugar per year. That’s added sugar, not the natural sugar found in fruit. Children consume a few pounds more per year.
If you're worried about your own sugar intake, take a look at your cup. Nearly half of added sugar comes from beverages. That includes everything from soft drinks to tea and coffee, which people commonly add sugar to.
9. The average meat eater consumes between 7,000 and 27,000 animals
Global vegan and vegetarian statistics can vary significantly from country to country. For example, only 5% Americans are vegetarian, while 24% Indians are vegetarian. This means that a large percentage of the world's population still eats meat. It's quite remarkable how much meat everyone eats.
This is another one of those statistics that’s hard to pin down with precision, but you can get a sense of the numbers based on the available data. In 2015, Vegetarian Calculator developed an algorithm that it said could determine how many animals you’d save by being a vegetarian or vegan. They claimed that over the course of the average person’s lifetime, if you ate meat, you’d eat 7,000 animals, including 11 cows, 27 pigs, and 2,400 chickens.
In 2022, Vox data showed that the average American ate 25 land animals a year, 23 of which were chicken. Factor in seafood, and the annual total jumps to 174, with the bulk of that (137) coming from shellfish like shrimp.
If the average American lives to be 77 years old, and you take off a year for when you don't eat too many steaks and ribs as an infant, you have a potential of 76 years of eating 174 animals a year. That's 13,224 animals. That's 1,748 chickens, 912 fish, 25 pigs, and 7.6 whole cows.
Now, if you look at the Vegetarian Calculator today, a few years after that 2015 story about humans eating 7,000 animals a year, the numbers have changed. Plug 76 years into their calculator, and they claim you've saved the lives of 15,352 animals. Even more dramatically, if you look at their vegan calculator, the numbers jump to 27,758 animals not eaten in 76 years.
The inventory we have now is over 20,000 animals. So what is the most accurate number? Maybe it doesn't matter, because no matter how you slice it, you're going to slice a lot of animals.
8. You probably eat 1 kilogram of bugs a year.
Not everything you eat in a year is eaten intentionally, so as a little palate cleanser, let's look at what humans eat without realizing it. Federal food regulations dictate what can and can't end up in the food we eat, and they have a little wiggle room. For example, while no one wants to eat bugs, it's literally impossible to guarantee that food won't contain bugs, so there's an acceptable standard for bugs that end up in the food you eat.
By some estimates, you probably eat about two pounds of bugs of various species in any given year. That may sound excruciating, but it’s a good number. When you look at what the FDA allows, it gets a lot worse.
The paste is allowed to contain 225 insect fragments. A box of raisins can contain 33 fruit fly eggs. Got a jar of mushrooms in the cupboard? It can contain up to 19 larvae. If you want to enjoy fig pate at any time, keep in mind that 100 grams can contain 13 insect heads.
For some interesting reading, check out the FDA's full list, which lets you know not only the number of bugs, but also the amount of mold, rotten food, rat hair, and mammal feces in a given food product.
7. On average, a person eats 18 kg of cheese per year.
Do you like cheese? If so, you’re far from alone. Europeans are at the forefront of cheese consumption: the average Frenchman eats 25 kg a year. In America, it was lower in 2020, but still 20 kg a year. In 10 years, it’s up 5 kg.
Back in 1977, Americans ate a measly 15 pounds of cheese a year. The reason for this dramatic increase in cheese consumption is harder to pin down, but you can make some educated guesses. For example, as we'll see shortly, Americans also love pizza. As pizza consumption increases, so does cheese consumption, or you're doing it wrong.
6. The average person drinks about 500 alcoholic drinks a year
Excessive drinking is something that many people worry about, and there are some serious consequences that can happen when people drink to excess. But this is often considered on an individual basis – you’ll hear about a drunk driver in an isolated incident. On a larger scale, the alcohol consumption figures are quite remarkable.
Based on per capita consumption, the average American drinks 1.35 alcoholic drinks every day. That's 494 drinks a year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that 33.7% American adults don't drink alcohol at all, so the "average" in that 494-drink statistic is doing the heavy lifting. Not to mention, since it's an average, it also includes everyone under the age of majority. Adjusted for age, 494 becomes 705. Adjusted again to account for the 33% non-drinkers, that's about 1,000 people.
Globally, the average annual alcohol consumption per person aged 15 and over is just over 6.18 litres. However, this is pure alcohol, not just alcoholic drinks. For example, if wine contains 12% of alcohol, you would need to drink 53 bottles to get six litres.
Czechs consume an average of just under 15 liters of pure alcohol per year at the top end of the scale, while Ugandans consume just over 15. Americans consume 9.87 liters.
5. Americans eat a staggering amount of pizza.
In 2020, there were just over 78,000 pizza places in America. So it’s safe to say that Americans love pizza, and why wouldn’t they? Bread, cheese, sauce, a good combo. With all that pizza out there, you have to wonder how much people are consuming to keep all these places in business. Turns out, the answer is a lot.
CiCi's Pizza surveyed 1,000 Americans and came up with a figure of 6,000. That's how many slices the average American will eat in their lifetime. Their survey also found that a third of people eat pizza every week, while the USDA beat them to the punch with the statistic that 13% Americans eat pizza every single day. One in four men aged 6 to 19 eats it every day. In a year, you'll burn off 23 pounds of it.
To reach these numbers, these 78,000 restaurants produce three billion pizzas a year.
4. The average hamburger lover spends 10% of their income on fast food
Most of us are well aware that fast food is unhealthy, but the fact is that many of them are actually delicious. This is a fact supported by a huge number of numbers. More than 36% American adults will eat fast food on any given day. In dollars and cents, the average American spends 10% of their entire annual income on fast food.
And while many people are quick to dismiss this as something that low-income people do, the opposite is true. 42%higher-income people eat fast food on any given day, while that number drops to 31.7%lower-income people.
3. One person can drink from 100 to 200 liters of soda per year
Coca-Cola's revenue in 2021 was $38.6 billion. Pepsico's revenue was over $79 billion in 2021. While both companies sell more than just soft drinks, they're both primarily known for that aspect of their business, and you can safely assume a significant portion of that revenue came from soft drinks. So how much does the average person drink?
In 2013, the average American consumed 200 liters of soda per year. There are about 10 cans in a gallon, although different sizes are available, so that means the average American drank about 440 cans per year.
By 2018, that number had dropped to 170 litres per person, so while it's still high, it appears to be on a downward trend. And for what it's worth, that's all fizzy drinks, not just the ones made with sugar.
2. The average child eats 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Peanut butter and jelly are a staple for many children in the Western world. They may be discouraged in schools these days because of peanut allergies, which only really affect 1% of the population, and bans, which don't really work either, because accidental exposure is the same in places where they're banned as in places where they're not. But that doesn't mean people, especially children, can't enjoy them at home.
According to a 2016 survey, the average American will eat a respectable 2,984 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in their lifetime. Half of those will be eaten by kids before they graduate, according to the National Peanut Board.
As a slight contrast, the average European is not on the same peanut butter level as the American, consuming less than one tablespoon of peanut butter per year.
1. The average person eats almost a ton of food per year.
A statistic most people seem to know is that the average adult needs to consume about 2,000 calories a day as part of a healthy diet. On average, this can vary greatly depending on your fitness and activity level, but it’s kind of the industry standard. But how much food is that? And what does it equal over a year?
There's not a lot of recent data on this topic, but in 2011, the Department of Agriculture estimated that the average American eats 2,000 pounds of food each year. That's a big rhino.
Of that nearly one ton of food, 85 pounds were just fat and oil. On the other hand, 123 pounds were fruit and 188 pounds were vegetables. Wheat and grains made up 90 pounds. Dairy products were a staggering 285 pounds. Meat was a relatively conservative 85 pounds. And if you have a sweet tooth, perhaps unsurprisingly, 63 pounds were just sweeteners.
Despite this 2,000 calorie per day figure, the average American also consumed between 2,700 and 3,663 calories per day.
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