Modern American diet has gotten bigger, heavier on grains and fat Average daily per capita calories
Americans eat more chicken and less beef than they used to. They drink less milk – especially whole milk – and eat less ice cream, but they consume way more cheese. Their diets include less sugar than in prior decades but a lot more corn-derived sweeteners. And while the average American eats the equivalent of 1.2 gallons of yogurt a year, he or she also consumes 36 pounds of cooking oils – more than three times as much as in the early 1970s.
Modern American diet has gotten bigger, heavier on grains and fat  | Average daily per capita calories  | 600  | 1970 (total: 2,025)  | 2010 (total: 2,481)  | 500  | 400  | 300  | 200  | 100  | Grain  | Fats  | Red meat,  | Sugars/  | Dairy  | Vegetables Legumes,  | Fruit/fruit  | Eggs  | products  | and oils  | poultry, fish sweeteners products  | nuts and soy juices  | Note: Fats and foils' includes butter, cream and other dairy fats. Figures adjusted for spoilage and other losses  | Source: USDA Economic Research Service; Pew Research Center analysis  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 