Chart Reveals Most Popular Groceries Among Americans

The most popular groceries bought by Americans in the year to June were fruits and vegetables, despite a hamburger and French fries being the most sought-after dish.

Data from Statista showed that 64 percent of 10,085 respondents between the ages of 18 and 64 most frequently bought fruit and vegetables when going to the grocery store, which was followed closely by eggs at 60 percent.

The survey was conducted over the course of a year, from June 2023 to June 2024. In the second quarter of this year, YouGov data showed that hamburgers were the most popular dish with 85 percent of survey respondents deeming it America’s best meal.

French fries were close behind at 84 percent, as were grilled cheese sandwiches with the same percentage. As fruits and vegetables are not typically included on the plates of dishes like burgers, fries or grilled cheese, it makes the data more surprising.

Newsweek spoke to Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health Professor Heather Eliassen about the data. She said she was “glad” to see fruits and vegetables are consumed regularly by “a large proportion of the surveyed grocery shoppers,” but warned that while diet quality in the U.S. has “gotten better over time,” the changes aren’t “uniform across the population.”

The American diet has been stereotyped as less healthy, and people in the U.S. often have a harder time losing weight than in other countries, according to Medical News.

One reason for this is that Americans tend to drive everywhere they need to go given the greater size of American cities compared to those in Europe, for example, where it is more common to walk.

Another reason was the fact American portion sizes tend to be larger for each meal than in other countries and that even healthy options in chains like Olive Garden can still be bad for you as they have high amounts of sodium.

Eliassen added that there is “still a large proportion of calories consumed in the U.S. that is coming from ultra processed foods, including sodas, sweets and snacks.”

She added that “there are few people who are consuming an ideal diet that includes lower intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meat and higher intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, beans and fish.”

She concluded that while “it is great to see some improvements in diet quality and regular consumption of fruits and vegetables,” she believes that “we could all stand to do better in terms of our individual habits and working to improve access to high quality foods for all.”

The most common diet in the U.S. as of April 2024 was a high-protein diet, according to Statista, and that is unchanged from last year. The diet is popular as it can help decrease hunger, increase satiety, boost metabolic rate and preserve muscle mass, according to the health news outlet verywellfit.com.

It was followed by a mindful diet, which involves paying greater attention to the experience of what you eat in order to promote gratitude and improve fullness cues.

A connection can be made between the popularity of the high protein diet to the most popular groceries bought by Americans, as eggs, dairy products and meat were the second, third and fourth most popular products picked up from stores, all of which are good sources of protein.

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