8: number of dishes made for a typical Thanksgiving dinner in an average American family
18.1: pounds of turkey the average American will eat in 1998
6.3: pounds of that turkey which will be consumed during the holiday season
72: milligrams of cholesterol found in a roast turkey leg
90: percentage of turkeys and chickens sold in supermarkets believed
to be contaminated with salmonella and other bacteria
67.7: pounds of beef the average American will eat in 1998
52.8: pounds of pork
74.4: pounds of chicken (nearly 26 pounds more than in 1980)
9: millions of people in the United States who consider themselves vegetarian
31: percentage of Michigan adults who are overweight
144: weight of the average American woman, in pounds.
14: the clothes size worn by the average American woman
8: the clothes size Barbie would wear if she were human
2: the clothes size Hollywood actresses try to fit into
4: number of states with more overweight people than Michigan
8: percentage of preschool-age American children who are overweight
868: the number of cans of soda an average 12- to 19-year-old American male consumes a year
628: the number of sodas a girl in the same age group drinks each year
57: the percentage of adult Americans who always or usually use mayonnaise or mayonnaise-type salad dressing on their sandwiches
61: percentage of American consumers who ranked cheese as the food they crave most frequently
34: percentage of calories Americans get from fat
32: gallons of beer the typical American adult drank in 1995
21: gallons of coffee Americans consume annually, per capita
22: number of Metro Times staff who have dieted at some point in their life; the total staff numbers 62
10: number of Metro Times staff who have had an eating disorder at some point in their life
50 Million: pounds of food Michigan food banks distributed in 1997
992,000: number of people in Michigan who suffered from food insecurity, ranging from anxiety over where the next meal will come from to missing meals and experiencing hunger pains, in 1997
90: average number of insect fragments the FDA allows to be present in a 100-gram sample of chocolate.
11.7: pounds of chocolate consumed per capita, per year
300: varieties of honey available in the United States
30: average number of insect fragments the FDA allows to be present in a 100-gram sample of peanut butter
0: number of genetically engineered foods the FDA requires to be labeled as such
8: percentage of American children who have a life-threatening food allergy
1641: year the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed America's first food adulteration law. It required meat to be labeled for quality and weight
71.8: percent of analyzed fruit and vegetable samples (fresh and processed together) found to contain at least one pesticide residue per sample
14: percentage of Austrian agriculture devoted to organic farming
2: percentage of American agriculture devoted to organic farming
40: percentage of world population still subsistence farming
1,500: average miles food travels before it arrives at your home
20: tons of potatoes that an acre of Idaho can yield per year
1,965: dollars spent per acre on that crop
15: profit, in dollars, that the farmer will net on that acre
5,200,000,000: total retail dollar sales of potato chips in 1997
150: calories per ounce of Lay's potato chips
45 million: the number of American kids who are overweight
20: percentage of American children who go hungry part of every month
1996: year the Child Nutrition Act was passed by the U.S. Congress
1: number of countries at the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome that refused to adopt a doctrine guaranteeing everyone a right to food. That country was the United States.
4 billion: dollars cut and to be cut from federal food stamp programs each year between 1996 and 2002
1975: year the U.S. Congress established the School Breakfast program
6.1 million: number of low-income children served school breakfast programs in the U.S. in 1997
100: percentage of Detroit public schools that provide free or reduced-price lunch programs
3: number of food banks in the United States in 1977
1 billion: dollar value of all food served by food banks in the country
188: number of food pantries currently served by Second Harvest, the largest food bank in the United States
10: percentage of the country's population Second Harvest served in 1997
62: percentage of those clients who are female
38: percentage of Second Harvest clients in 1997 who were under 18 years old
39: percentage of Second Harvest clients who worked full- or part-time last year
8,396: people turned away from emergency food sites in the tri-country area due to a lack of food to serve them in the first nine months of 1998
28: percentage of people visiting food banks in the United States who have at some point had to choose between buying medical care and food
