ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 17, 1996 TAG: 9601170073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Americans are managing to eat less fat, but putting on the pounds, anyway. They are eating four times as much Mexican food and three times as much popcorn and pretzels as they did two decades ago.
An Agriculture Department survey of 5,500 Americans in 1994 found that half ate no fruit on a given day. They readily passed up dark-green and deep-yellow vegetables, despite official advice to eat more. One in three adults was overweight. Children were getting off to a sweet start, switching from milk to soft drinks or apple-based juices.
The survey came out two weeks after the government issued updated guidelines telling people to eat more grains, eat five helpings of fruits and vegetables a day and try to get 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day.
Americans did report eating a lot more grain, but that category included a 200 percent increase in snacks and a 60 percent increase in ready-to-eat cereals. Consumption of ``grain mixtures'' such as pizza and lasagna more than doubled. Ethnic foods such as Mexican cooking added to the mixtures.
Because many foods were listed, ethnic foods included such low-fat items as salsa and rice, or fattier ones such as refried beans.
The reported tripling in snack foods such as crackers, popcorn, pretzels and corn chips astonished even the industry.
``Wow!'' said Jane Schultz, of the Snack Foods Association, based in Alexandria, Va. The industry estimates that Americans ate an average of 22 pounds of salty snacks in 1994, up from 17.5 pounds in 1988. But the industry numbers don't go any farther back. ``I wouldn't say it's out of the realm of possibility,'' she said.
The greatest progress came in the fat department, where the message to lower consumption has been around the longest. Americans got 33 percent of their calories from fat in 1994, down from 40 percent in 1977-1978, but still above the recommended 30 percent.
Two-thirds of adults got more than the limit for all fats. Nearly as many got more than their limit for saturated fat, set at 10 percent of daily calories.
``It shows that education initiatives toward consuming less fat and consuming foods that contain less fat have had an effect,'' said Lori G. Borrud, survey leader at the Agricultural Research Service.
Still, survey participants - children included - consumed 6 percent more calories, averaging nearly 2,000 a day. Nearly a third of the men and half the women said they rarely engaged in vigorous exercise - defined, Borrud says, as ``enough to work up a sweat.''
Even accounting for a 1-inch average gain in height, people averaged 11 to 12 pounds heavier.
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB