Weighty Matters

According to an analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average American man now stands at 5-feet-9 1/4 inches tall and weighs 196 pounds — up 15 pounds from 20 years ago. For women, the change has been even more striking: The average female today stands 5-feet-3 3/4 inches and weighs 169 pounds. In 1994, her scale read 152 pounds. The latest CDC estimates now show that, as of 2016, 40 percent of US adults and 19 percent of youth were obese.

Some numbers from Vox:

More than half of our food dollars are now being spent on restaurants and convenient on-the-go meals. In 2015, Americans spent more money eating away from home than they did on groceries for the first time in history.

Researchers have found that people typically eat 20 to 40 percent more calories in restaurants compared with what they’d eat at home.

The average restaurant meal today is more than four times the size of typical 1950s fare, according to the CDC.

These supersize portions are reflected in our daily calorie intake. The average American’s total caloric intake grew from 2,109 calories in 1970 to 2,568 calories in 2010. As Pew Research put it, that’s "the equivalent of an extra steak sandwich every day."

People who drink soda have more obesity, Type 2 diabetes, tooth decay, and other health problems compared with people who don't -- the research on this is clear. And Americans are drinking way, way too much of the sweet stuff. According to Euromonitor’s most recent data, Americans remain the world leaders when it comes to per capita sales of soft drinks.

That said, one of the biggest public health wins of recent decades has been a slow shift away from soda in the United States.

With more awareness about the strong correlation between drinking sweet, fizzy drinks and obesity and tooth decay, sales of beverages like Coca-Cola and Pepsi have slumped.

But we may still be getting hoodwinked by other, equally sugary beverages. According to Euromonitor’s analysis of US retail beverage sales over the past five years, while the soda category is shrinking, juice sales have held steady, and sales of energy and sports drinks have been growing.

And PepsiCo Inc. has agreed to buy SodaStream International Ltd. for $3.2 billion, the latest move by the cola giant to diversify away from sugary sodas and salty snacks.

(Israel-based SodaStream makes countertop machines that allow consumers to carbonate tap water and other beverages at home by filling a reusable bottle and flavoring with an array of syrups.)

As of 2013, potatoes and tomatoes made up half of the legumes and vegetables available in this country, according to the US Department of Agriculture. And when we do eat tomatoes and potatoes, they’re often accompanied by so much sugar, fat, and salt that we’re propelled to overeat.

The UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity found that in 2014, food companies spent $1.28 billion to advertise snack foods on television, in magazines, in coupons, and, increasingly, on the internet and mobile devices. Almost 60 percent of that advertising spending promoted sweet and savory snacks, while just 11 percent promoted fruit and nut snacks. And advertising of sweet snacks increased 15 percent, even from 2010 to 2014, according to Rudd’s analysis.

Javier Zarracina/Vox