Nutritive Value of the Per Capita Food Supply, 1909-45

Excerpts from the report Summary: Periodic estimates of the United States food supply have been made during recent years. These proved useful for showing trends in consumption of major food groups, for indicating trends in the relative adequacy of the civilian diet, and for comparison with similar data for other countries. In order to provide historical perspective for current data, the nutritive values of the Nation's food supply have been estimated for each year beginning with 1909, the first year for which reasonably adequate data are available. This report presents three sets of data for the period 1909-45: (1) Estimates of per capita quantities of the major groups of foods available for consumption each year at the retail level of distribution, including home-produced food; (2) the daily per capita quantity of 11 nutrients in these foods; and (3) the proportion of the total quantity of the various nutrients coming from the major groups of foods