how much are we eating, and how much is sugar?

[kenllama]

Mssr. Pollan caught people's attention on The Daily Show the other day, stating that Americans get 20% of our calories from HFCS, and that we eat 240 lbs of sugars every year, and I can't make his math add up. USDA says (see esp. tables 50-53) that we eat a total of about 140 lbs of sugar every year, something like a third of which is HFCS -- about

Comments

Maybe it's not "eating"...

[kittenpants]

One way to start looking for fun numbers would be average soda consumption... for non-diet sodas, this is almost universally HFCS. Ditto your soda-fountain juice-flavored concoctions, and a distressing number of "fruit juice cocktails".

Re: Maybe it's not "eating"...

[kenllama]

That's true enough. I'd settle for "consumption" rates.

If I'm reading the USDA figures right, Americans consumed an average only about 1/4 lb of HFCS in soda in 2008. I suspect that I'm misreading these figures. (I'm seeing 340,000 tons of HFCS in beverages in 2008 -- 68million lbs for around 300million people. Can this be right?)

Re: Maybe it's not "eating"...

[kenllama]

That makes much more sense than what I was coming up with.

[kenllama]

"domestic disappearance" = "it fell off the back of a truck, honest!" ?

curious...

[eac]

Saw a recent story (perhaps from Em, even) that Americans throw out up to 40% of the food they purchase, so maybe that's what E means by domestic disappearance, rather than consumption?

[jennlynn_green]

Hmmmm...perhaps you could ask Mr. Pollan how he made that calculation. His website has this addy: inquiries@michaelpollan.com

[kenllama]

Oh thank you! I will indeed do that.

[kenllama]

Thanks Beth! Can you point me to the NHANES results you mention? I looked on their website but didn't find anything readily -- lots of documentation, but not results-data.

thanks!

[starrthinks]

Soda.... is full of HFCS. That could be why it's 20%

The people I know who drink soda go through a 2 liter a day or close to it...