The USDA Confirms That Americans Really Like Pizza (2024)

In one of the least surprising turn of events of all time, the
USDA's Food Surveys Research Group found that Americans eat a lot of pizza. Apparently a whopping 13% of Americans (that's 1 in every 8 people) over the age of two eat pizza on any given day. Older children ranging from 6 to 11 and adolescents ranging from 12 to 19 eat the most pizza (22 percent have some on any given day). Kids tend to eat pizza for lunch or dinner, while adults typically eat pizza only for dinner. Americans also eat 66% of their pizza at home, we're guessing thanks to the ease of delivery these days.

Americans eat so much pizza that the food contributes to 6% of peoples' total energy and 4% of children's' total energy. Pizza consumption also contributes to daily intake of fat, saturated fat, fiber, calcium, and lycopene. Unfortunately it holds a large slice of the sodium intake pie, too. On a day when pizza is consumed, 33% of sodium intake for the day for children and 38% of sodium intake for the day for adults is from ingesting pizza.

How much pizza do you typically eat? Are you surprised by the USDA's results?

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