I don’t snack much anymore.
That’s actually strange when I think about it, because there was a time when eating between meals seemed completely normal to me.
Breakfast.
Something mid-morning.
Lunch.
Something in the afternoon.
Dinner.
Maybe something while watching television.
Food was always somewhere nearby.
These days I usually eat one main meal, sometimes another smaller one, and then I’m done.
I’m not walking around heroically resisting the refrigerator.
I’m just not hungry.
And that got me wondering:
When did eating all day become normal?
We’ve Definitely Become a Nation of Snackers
The history isn’t quite as neat as saying nobody snacked in the 1950s and then somebody invented it in 1972.
People have eaten between meals for a very long time.
But American eating patterns really did change.
Researchers looking at national food surveys found that the percentage of adults reporting snacks increased from about 71% in 1977–78 to 97% by 2003–06.
The average number of daily snacking occasions increased t…
