Butter

Americans are not known for eating prodigious amounts of butter. In 2011, they consumed an average of 4.8 pounds of butter per person, almost five four-stick packs. While this is much more than is eaten by residents of Latin American and Asian countries, it is far less than the quantity eaten by most Western Europeans. German consumption that year averaged almost three times that of Americans, and French consumption, the highest in the world, was almost four times as high.

Moderate and declining butter consumption has been a long-standing trend. In 1937, when margarine consumption was quite low and butter was still produced on many farms, the average American ate 16.7 pounds of butter a year. This total is much higher than the 2011 figure, but rates in other English-speaking countries, such as New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom, were even higher.