Americans have one of the highest per-capita rates of meat consumption in the world, says the NPR blog The Salt, pegging red meat consumption at 71 pounds a year. In light of the decision by the WHO’s cancer agency to classify red meat as probably carcinogenic and processed meat as carcinogenic last October, NPR commissioned a survey of 3,000 people to see if their meat consumption patterns have changed. Thirty percent of respondents said the publicity had caused them to change their eating habits. “But as we dug into the data, it seems the changes in habits are very subtle,” says NPR.
Some 7.4 percent of respondents said they eat no meat during a typical week, a slight decrease from the 8.6 percent in a 2012 survey for NPR. “Fifty-one percent said they eat meat one to four times a week, and 38 percent said they eat it five or more times a week. In the 2012 survey, 58 percent ate meat one to four times a week and 31 percent ate red meat five or more times weekly. “In a nutshell, Americans’ meat-eating habits haven’t shifted much,” said NPR. Two analysts told NPR that people say they are eating more vegetables and one of them said people may be trying to replace meat with vegetables.