cm2012 2 hours ago

Yes not gonna pull it but there's data that shows calories got meaningfully cheaper and easier to access in the United States and more plentiful from the 1980s to the 2020s.

▲

xg15 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

That shift might have been plausible if it happened in the 40s or 50s when the economy switched from war to consumption - but in the 80s? What kind of massive breakthrough in food production happened there that we mysteriously never heard of?

	▲	treis an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Food as a % of income declined dramatically. This chart has it at 18% in 1960 declining to ~10% today. https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2020/november/average-s... There were a ton of programs after WWII to improve the nutrition of the country. This largely meant raising calories to prevent malnutrition. And the 80s are as good a point as any other to where that succeeded.
	▲	picofarad an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Aspartame

▲

toasty228 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Oh yeah, the same exact period during which ultra processed food was introduced to the mass... interesting...