How much junk food do Americans really eat?

America, land of the free happy-hour buffet, home of the 24-hour diner and drive-through restaurant. The American love affair with so-called “junk food” arguably began with the advent of McDonald’s in the 1950s and has done nothing but grow ever since. In fact, sales at American restaurants and bars surpassed those at grocery stores in 2015. In the United States fast food revenues hit $200 billion in 2015, a staggering climb over the $6 billion in revenues in 1970, according to an industry analysis by FranchiseHelp.com. That equates to about $625 per person in the country spent at fast food restaurants for the year. Americans spent $7.5 billion on potato chips in 2015, or an average of roughly $23 for every man, woman and child, according to a recent report by Packaged Facts, a market research publisher. And according to the USDA, potato chips are the most eaten form of potatoes in American homes. More