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Meat and the American Diet

  • Marlon Mata
  • December 20, 2010

To be frank, Americans are by nature real carnivores. They are one of the biggest consumers of meat and meat products in the world and the numbers are rising more and more every year. It’s quite an interesting topic to discuss, since this actually gives a clear picture of their culture and lifestyle. Whether it’s about eating at home or outside, meat is always the central part of the American psyche. Wouldn’t this be an interesting topic to explore? Who knows what interesting facts we can glean on the topic.

Meat is everywhere. From the sidewalks of New York to the seaside of San Francisco, one never fails to see one sign or another displaying a restaurant’s special fair. It could be pork, beef, chicken, or anything else in between. It could also be done by roasting, frying, boiling and the like. You could even see them being featured on TV and the print. Still, they are all considered as meat. And Americans are so obsessed with them. Really, you could see it in the yearly consumption of meat. It makes some people like me wonder just how far along the American public has gotten obsessed with this.


But it can’t be helped. It’s part of their culture, as well as history. I think it’s safe to say that Americans eat meat for practical purposes. Grains, potatoes, and other carbohydrates-rich crops are not easy to get commodities during the colonization period, and the early settlers at that time would have to make do with dishes from the animals they’ve hunted or raised. As the years have gone by, despite the development of better farming practices and increased production of potatoes and grains, that habit has become embedded in the collective psyche of the people. Now, they just can’t do away with meat. They just have to have more of it.

But haven’t you wondered about the eating habits of Americans now? I mean, yes, we do eat a lot of meat now, but do we eat the same kind of meat as what our parents ate ten years ago, or what our grandparents enjoyed about twenty years ago? We could pretty much expect that this is not the case. Research has shown that the eating habits of Americans over the years have changes. The amounts consumed may have remained a bit the same, but it’s the proportion of meat types that have changed considerably over the years.

Based on the table created by the USDA, we could clearly see the differences. Well, I’ll just put an excerpt here of their press release so that you’ll have a clearer idea on what’s going on:

“..more than ever, America is a Nation of meat eaters. In 2000, total meat consumption (red meat, poultry, and fish) reached 195 pounds (boneless, trimmed-weight equivalent) per person, 57 pounds above average annual consumption in the 1950s. Each American consumed an average of 7 pounds more red meat than in the 1950s, 46 pounds more poultry, and 4 pounds more fish and shellfish. Rising consumer incomes, especially with the increase in two-income households, and meat prices in the 1990s that were often at 50-year lows, when adjusted for inflation, explain much of the increase in meat consumption. In addition, the meat industry has provided scores of new brand-name, value-added products processed for consumers’ convenience, as well as a host of products for foodservice operators..”

Meat and the American DietSo you see? It sure explains to us pretty much what we needed to know. Indeed, we are eating so much meat now. And it can’t be helped. It’s cheap, it’s abundant, and it provides satisfaction for a lot of people. Coupled with an increase in the buying power of households, and you can be pretty much expect an exponential increase in the amount of protein consumed by an average American family.

But what’s interesting to note is a trend observed by Steven Levitt and Stephen Duber, co-authors of the blog Freakonomics and Super Freakonomics. American are eating less and less red meat like beef while the demand for chicken is on the rise. This could be owed to that recent recall of tainted beef, plus the increasing public perception that eating red meats is equal to dancing with death. It’s a scary image that people want to avoid. In addition, more women are joining the workforce, which means they have less time to prepare slow to cook dishes like beef. And we could also attribute this trend to the bigger buying power families. They tend to eat out more, and they’re probably going to restaurants that serve more chicken and less beef.

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