New Graphic Shows All the Crap We Eat in a Year

Visual Economics

We love animal fats and corn syrup ― and more fruits and vegetables than you might think.

​Our favorite morsel from the Web.

Bonnie Azab Powell gets graphic today at Grist, courtesy of Visual Economics. The breakdown shows what the average American eats per year, in a shapeshifting recast of the food pyramid from ideal to actual. Turns out the average American is 36.6 years old, a 5-foot-9 male weighing 190 pounds, or a 5-foot-4 female weighing 164 pounds. Powell:

A quick check of the Mayo Clinic's Body Mass Index calculator shows that both Joe and Jane Sixpack are thus overweight, with a BMI of 28.1 ― 30 and above is classified as obese.

That abundant body mass comes from milk fats (over 700 pounds of milk, butter, and cheese per year), meats (more than 200 pounds, including fish), and sweeteners (42 pounds of corn syrup). But Powell doesn't trust all the information the wheel spins:

Oddly, the graphic also shows Americans eating 415.4 pounds of vegetables and 273.2 pounds of fruit. That's more than 2 pounds of the healthy stuff per day, which seems highly unlikely.

Really? What about all the fries and ketchup?