The early 1970s were the true heyday of beef in the United States. It was the era of stroganoff, stews, casseroles, steak lunches, and 60-cent burgers. It also marked the beginning of a long decline for meat across America. In 1975, the average American ate nearly 90 pounds of beef each year.it is now Approximately 57 poundsand chicken has replaced beef as the most consumed meat in the United States.
A decline in appetite for beef is good news for the environment. Beef emits 10 times more greenhouse gas emissions than poultry or pork. 20x, 60x Better than many plant-based proteins. But to really understand where beef consumption is heading, we need to look at the following: who I just love eating beef, and that’s what makes it so interesting.
early this year Study at Tulane University The New Orleans study found that a relatively small number of Americans account for the lion’s share of beef consumption, and those who eat beef tend to be older and men. But the beef industry isn’t content with shrinking its customer base, and is looking to create a whole new generation of beef-eaters.
Diego Rose is director of the nutrition program at Tulane University and one of the authors of a paper examining beef habits in the United States. The study used data from a national survey from 2015 to 2018 that asked adult Americans to recall the foods they ate in the past 24 hours. The authors defined heavy beef consumers as those who consumed 4 or more ounces of beef per day (slightly more than one cooked hamburger). US dietary guidelines It is recommended that adults consume no more than 4 ounces of meat, poultry, and eggs per day.
More than half of survey respondents had eaten beef in the past 24 hours, but what struck Rose was how few people were responsible for the lion’s share of beef consumption. According to his data, only 12% of the surveyed people accounted for half of the beef consumed. People who eat a lot of beef are more likely to be men between the ages of 50 and 65, which is roughly correlated with the baby boomer generation.
Today’s large beef consumers likely grew up in the golden age of beef in the United States, before soaring prices and health concerns associated with red meat made beef a staple of the diet. “In general, your diet is inelastic,” says Rose. From the age of youth, people tend to stick to foods that they already know they like. People over 66 are also less likely to consume large amounts of beef, but Rose said this could be because people are following doctors’ advice to cut down on beef. “My gut feeling is that life is going to catch up with them,” he says.
