Photo by Food Republic
On Super Bowl Sunday, we were all unofficial competitors in the largest eating contest ever
If American employers don't see an all-time rate of folks calling out sick from work on the Monday after the Super Bowl, it's not because we weren't trying. (Incidentally, we ran a poll on bothInstagramandTwitterasking you, our Hungry Fan community, if you were going in to work or call out sick.) Over 350 of you responded and on average, 13% of you stayed home. Consider yourselves a portion ofAmerica's 17 millionpost-Super Bowl stay-at-homers).
How do we earn our "day off" on Monday? Like so many of you, it isn't just by watching the longest, most beautiful display of punting expertise. Nor is it just by witnessing thealways "entertaining" halftime.And it certainly isn't just by observing a truly lackluster volley of "witty," multi-million dollar commercials. Oh no. We earn our day away from work by absolutely stuffing our faces to the limit.
For us fans, Super Bowl Sunday marks an historic milestone in American chicken wing consumption. Indeed, we eat the most chicken wings ever on this 1 epic day of the year. Hell of an accomplishment, us! In total, with all party foods and decorations tallied, we Americans put our money where our collective mouth is and will spend an estimated$14.8 billionon Super Bowl festivities. Just how do we do it?
WE HOUSE THE CHEESE.
It was once said that the Swiss were really into cheese. Well, if the United States were to compete in an Olympic Games of cheese eating, our performance on Super Bowl Sunday alone would surely win us—and not the Swiss—the prized gold medal (#humblebrag). Whether youeata cheesy queso dip, use cheese as a topping for your nachos or chili dog, or if a nice chunk served as the stunning centerpiece of your antipasto grazing board, collectively, we serve up and eat a lot.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Cheese we'll eat = 88 million pounds
- Amount of money we'll spend on cheese= $4.5 million
- Weird but related stat= Together, we'll consume enough cheese on Super Bowl Sunday to cover the Mercedes-Benz Stadium field, end zone to end zone, 10yards deep in cheese. –Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin
WE POWER-HOUR OUR BEER.
It clearly states in the United States Constitution somewhere that each and every American—of age—must consume at least one domestic beer during the Super Bowl. That's based on a very loose, elastic interpretation, of course. If you're more of a strict constitutionalist, however, that might be a stretch. Joking aside, what is certainly a fact is that by the numbers, we Americans love our beer on Super Bowl Sunday. We drink a lot of it.
BY THE NUMBERS
Beer we'll consume = 325.5 million gallons
Amount of money we'll spend on beer= $1.3 billion*
Weird but related stat= We will collectivelydrinkenough beer to fill 492 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
*Just beer. Not wine, liquor, or any other adult spirit. Just beer.
WE (SNACK) LIKE COWS.
Not counting the amount of snacks consumedwhileshoppingfor our Super Bowl feasts (shame on you, salad bar grazers), we all do some serious snacking damage during the Big Game. Deep fried potato chips, roasted nuts, and piping hot popcorn will outnumber the viewing audience by 1000x prior to the game. It's safe to say by game's end, the snackswill be gone.
BY THE NUMBERS
Snacks consumed=14,500 tons of chips, 4 million pounds of pretzels, 3.8 million pounds of popcorn, and 2.5 million pounds of nuts, just to name a few.
Amount of money spent on snacks= $387,872,716
Weird but related stat= Collectively, we will eat 28 million pounds of potato chips during the Super Bowl.
WE DOWN SO MUCH PIZZA, YOU'D THINK IT WAS OUR FAVORITE SUPER BOWL DISH.
It's close. Definitely close. America, we sure do love our pizza. But it's still not our #1. Who knows why. Here's what wedoknow: On Super Bowl Sunday, fewer things make us happier than some meat-laden, cheesy, yeasty, crispy pizza.
BY THE NUMBERS
Pizza eaten= 12.5 millions pizzas
Amount of money spent on pizza= $130 million
Weird but related stat= Lined up side by side, the amount of pizza wewill eatcould cross the Golden Gate Bridge 1,392 times. And that's if everyone was ordering medium pizzas…
WE EAT SO MANY WINGS, IT'S A MIRACLE THERE ARE ANY LEFT FOR MARCH MADNESS.
Once again, holding the top spot in our hearts and on our Super Bowl menus—the venerable Buffalo chicken wing, our game day food champion. Looking at the numbers, it's really quite amazing how big of an impact one tiny,little barin upstate New York has had on American game day food culture. Wanna know just how much we love wings? Check out this infographic.
BY THE NUMBERS
Wings we'll eat = 1.38 billion (per theNational Chicken Council), which is up by 27 million from the previous year
Amount of money we'll spend on wings= $2.07 billion
Weird but related stat= We'll collectivelyeat enough wings to entirely fill 9,941'15 Cadillac Escalades. Holy SUVs Batman!!!
