Snacking is a major source of nutrition for U.S. consumers.
In a single year, the typical U.S. consumer consumes 231 morning snacks, 283 afternoon snacks and 261 evening snacks, according to a report from an independent market analyst.
Snacking is even more common among young consumers. Children, according to the report, are some of America’s most numerous snack consumers.
Kids aged 6-13 are among the most frequent “snackers” in the nation at a time when childhood obesity has never been higher.
Snacking frequencies peak for 14–24-year-olds who snacked on 878 occasions last year.
In fact, snacking is so ingrained in America’s eating habits that it has become a way of life rather than a trend, according to one analyst.
It illustrates an interesting phenomenon: the changing food habits of Americans.
Even as consumers move away from traditional meal patterns and fill up the gaps by snacking, they also are heading in other eating directions.
Our meals, for instance, used to consist of something like home-cooked pot roast, mashed potatoes laced with butter and salt, a thick slice of apple pie topped with a healthy scoop of vanilla ice cream—plain heavy meals, cooked from scratch, and eaten leisurely at home.
America has changed, and because it has, so have what we Americans eat and how we eat it.
We used to have simple, unsophisticated tastes and looked with suspicion at anything more exotic than hamburger.
Admittedly, we did adopt some foods from the various immigrant groups who flocked to our shores.
We learned to eat Chinese food, pizza, and bagels.
In the last few years, the international character of our diet has grown tremendously.
We can walk into practically any mall in America and buy pita sandwiches, quiches, and tacos.
Such foods are often changed on their journey from exotic imports to ordinary “American” meals, but the imports are a long way from a hamburger on a bun.
Why have we become worldly in our tastes?
For one thing, television blankets the country with information about new food products and trends.
Viewers in rural West Virginia know that the latest craving in Washington, D.C., is Cajun cooking or that something called tofu is now available in the local supermarket.
Another reason for the growing international flavor of our food is that many young Americans have traveled the country and gotten hooked on new tastes and flavors.
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At the same time, our growing concern with health also has affected the way we eat.
For the last few years, the media have warned us about the dangers of our traditional diet, high in salt and fat, low in fiber.
The media also began to educate us about the dangers of processed foods pumped full of chemical additives.
As a result, consumers began to demand healthier foods, and manufacturers started to change some of their products.
Many foods, such as lunch meat, canned vegetables, and soups, were made available in low-fat, low-sodium versions.
Whole grain cereals and high-fiber breads also began to appear on the grocery shelves.
Moreover, the food industry started to produce all-natural products—everything from potato chips to ice cream—without additives and preservatives.
Not surprisingly, the restaurant industry responded to this switch to healthier foods, luring customers with salad bars, broiled fish, and steamed vegetables.
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Similarly, as the traditional roles of women as homemakers changed, so did the way families ate.
With Mom working, there simply was not enough time for her to prepare the traditional three-square meals a day.
Instead, families began looking for alternatives to provide quick meals.
What was the result?
For one thing, there was a boom in fast-food restaurants.
The suburban or downtown strip that once contained a lone McDonald’s, now features Wendy’s, Taco Bell, Burger King, and Pizza Hut.
Families also began to depend on frozen foods as another time-saving alternative.
Once again, however, demand changed for the kind of frozen food available.
Frozen foods no longer consist of foil trays divided into greasy fried chicken, watery corn nib lets and lumpy mashed potatoes.
Supermarkets now stock a range of supposedly gourmet frozen dinners—from fettuccini in cream sauce to braised beef en brochette.
For all American eating habits are changing: the trends mainly include snacking, health foods and fast foods—seemingly all at the same time.
If it is true that “you are what you eat,” then America’s identity is evolving with its diet.
Bon appétit.
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Top o’ the morning!