Chew on this.
Americans often have the best intentions to eat healthy, but it doesn’t take long for their diets to go off the rails. Data released this week by food delivery site GrubHub shows that many of us are all about salads on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but by Thursday, we’re scarfing something decidedly less leafy.
Monday is our healthiest day of the week; we snap up salads on this day at a way higher rate than on other days of the week. Kaitlyn Carl, a spokesperson for Grubhub, tells Moneyish that this may be because “the weekend is a great time to indulge in your favorite foods — and come Monday, a lighter salad could be preferred.”
Our good intentions start to go downhill even by Tuesday. And by Thursday and Friday crab rangoon and pizza, respectively, rear their caloric heads. Carl says that pizza Fridays are a thing because “Fridays are typically more social and group-oriented,” which means that co-workers or friends are more likely to get together to share a pie.
The 2 dishes we’re eating more on this day than other days
Monday
- Cobb salad (ordered 52 percent more on Mondays than rest of week)
- Thai chicken crunch salad (48 percent)
Tuesday
- Thai chicken crunch salad (37 percent)
- Roasted turkey Cobb salad (37 percent)
Wednesday
- Chipotle cowboy salad (38 percent)
- Israeli salad (35 percent)
Thursday
- Crab rangoon (27 percent)
- Shawarma bowl (26 percent)
Friday
- Red pizza (73 percent)
- Cheese pizza (65 percent)
Americans may be in denial about their somewhat unhealthy eating habits though: Three in four say they follow a healthy diet, according to a poll of 3,000 people by NPR. (Though, ask them about other people’s diets and you’ll get a very different answer. More than half say that Americans are eating less healthy than they were 20 years ago, according to the Pew Research Center.)
Obesity data tends to support the latter conclusion though. More than one in three American adults are now obese — and that rate has been climbing for decades. And that comes with a high cost: $4,879 a year for women and $2,646 for men, which includes higher medical costs and the lower pay at work.