--- title: What Americans Are Eating description: New data from the USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) lets you peek into the kitchens of Americans and find out how they're eating—based on what... canonical: https://time.com/2818849/these-are-the-most-popular-foods-in-america/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-03T19:49:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:08:19.080Z article:section: Health og:title: Here's What Americans Are Eating og:description: less ice cream, more mozzarella cheese og:url: https://time.com/2818849/these-are-the-most-popular-foods-in-america/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Americans Are Eating twitter:description: less ice cream, more mozzarella cheese twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # These Are The Most Popular Foods In America by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 3, 2014 7:49 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 3, 2014 7:49 PM UTC New [data](http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-availability-and-consumption.aspx#.U44CfJRdVor) from the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) lets you peek into the kitchens of Americans and find out how they’re eating—based on what they’re buying. The ERS’s Food Availability data measures yearly supplies of several food commodities in the U.S., and this year, some of the most interesting results are that sweet foods like ice cream appear to dropping, though we tend to mostly like our fruit in juice form and pizza and tomatoes round out our favorite veggies. We eat very little of the healthier ones like romaine lettuce or even sweet corn. Chicken is outpacing beef by a longshot, and yes: we still love mozzarella cheese. The data also shows that we are not following the MyPlate government eating recommendations, and most of our calories are coming from grain products and fats and oils. Check out the graphs below for a look at the American dinner. Americans are losing their sweet tooth (or are switching to other sources of non-calorie sweeteners):  Mozzarella is still Americans’ favorite cheese, followed by Cheddar. [ ](https://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/food-availability%5Ffig02-1-copy1.png)  The availability of chicken is higher than beef, so we eat more of it:  Potatoes and tomatoes are, perhaps unsurprisingly, far and away the most commonly consumed vegetables:  Oranges and apples are Americans’ top fruits, but mostly in juice form:  ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2818849/these-are-the-most-popular-foods-in-america/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2818849/these-are-the-most-popular-foods-in-america/"},"headline":"These Are The Most Popular Foods In America","datePublished":"2014-06-03T19:49:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:08:19.080Z","description":"New data from the USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) lets you peek into the kitchens of Americans and find out how they're eating—based on what...","url":"https://time.com/2818849/these-are-the-most-popular-foods-in-america/","keywords":["Nutrition","eating","USDA"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/nutrition/","name":"Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2818849/these-are-the-most-popular-foods-in-america/","name":"These Are The Most Popular Foods In America"}}]}] ```