More and more Americans are now switching to healthier eating habits after suffering years of increasingly worsening diets, according to a latest study conducted by the United States government.
The average American's increase in consumption of calories was first observed by the government during the late 1970s, and it reached its highest point in 2003. Latest observations, however, show that this rising trend has now undergone its first ever sustained decline since monitoring started over 40 years ago.
The decrease in calorie consumption was most noticeable among young children where the daily average consumption dropped by as much as nine percent.
Consumption of sugary drinks among people in the United States was shown to have decreased, with Americans now drinking 25 percent less of such beverages. This was a significant reduction compared to the alarming 40 gallons per year that the average American drank in the late 1990s.
The findings were observed across different demographic groups, such as among European-Americans and African-Americans, and lower- and higher-income families, although there were minor variations in results for each group.
With the drop in calorie consumption, the rates of obesity among school-aged children and adults in the country appear to have also stabilized. The number of obese young children, between two and five years old, has fallen by 43 percent in previous years, suggesting that the reduction in calorie consumption could be a major cause for it.
This considerable change in Americans' view on eating is believed to stem from an awareness of the adverse effects of over-eating and drinking to their overall health. This realization was started during the latter part of the 1990s, when several health studies revealed the costs of being obese, as well as public campaigns on health in previous years.
The positive development in public health with regards to calorie consumption, however, is not viewed as an end to the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. as more than one third of adults in the country still fall under the category of obese. This puts them at a greater risk for various diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
Experts say that Americans still do not eat enough vegetables and fruits, with most of them still preferring to consume unhealthy food though in reduced amounts.
The changes in eating habits, seen in the government's study, offer evidence that what was initially perceived as an inexorable decline in public health may very well change its direction.
"I think people are hearing the message, and diet is slowly improving,` Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of Tufts University's the School of Nutrition Science and Policy, said.
