July 31, 2018

Why Did We All Start Eating More Vegetable Oil When George Bush Was Elected President?

Vox reports today that our consumption of fats and oils has been increasing:

Can anyone explain this? I can’t find the original report, but this chart suggests that our consumption of vegetable fat increased from 55 pounds per person to 75 pounds per person between 1999 and 2003. That’s an increase of a third. Maybe it’s some kind of Y2K glitch in their database?

I’m not sure. But on another note, the USDA also informs us that consumption of avocados has skyrocketed since 2000, from two pounds per person to seven pounds per person. Needless to say, the explanation for this is no mystery at all: avocados are delicious and everyone should eat more of them.

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