Food for Thought

I'm making my way through Michael Pollan's Book In Defense of Food and came across an interesting footnote that I thought fit in with the title of this website. From the study "Why Have Americans Become More Obese?" by David M. Cutler:

In 1995 Americans spent twenty-seven minutes preparing meals and four minutes cleaning up after them; in 1965 the figure was forty-four minutes of preparation and twenty-one minutes of clean-up. Total time spent eating has dropped from sixty-nine minutes to sixty-five, all of which suggests a trend toward prepackaged meals.

Another point made on the same page, but not from this study, is that Americans spend 9.9% of their income on food. Italians and French spend 14.9%, while Spanish spend 17.1%. Interesting...