Changes in Eating Habits

We may know more about diet and nutrition than ever before, but it looks like our love of fast food hasn’t diminished, as sales have skyrocketed in the past 40 years. New data on the changing eating and drinking habits of consumers has revealed that our reliance on convenience foods such as frozen pizza and ready meals has increased since the 1970s.

In the meantime we’re consuming fewer classics like tea and toast today than our relatives were three generations ago. That’s not to say that our diet is all bad though. While fast food consumption may have increased, the data also shows that more people have switched from white bread to brown or whole meal than ever before.

Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said the results reflected the fact that the world has undergone a “food revolution” in the past 40 years. According to the latest report, one of the biggest jumps has been in the sales of pizza. Both frozen and non-frozen pizza has increased in popularity, with the average purchase rising from 2g per week in 1975 to 53g in 2014. The amount of takeaway pizzas bought per household climbed up 1,000% over the same period.

Likewise skimmed milk overtook whole milk in the 1990s and we now drink four times as much as we used to. Despite the fact that Brits are still famed for loving tea, the UK’s consumption of the drink has steadily declined in recent decades.

While tea remains more popular than instant coffee today, its reported weekly purchases have fallen by almost twothirds since 1974.