Food consumption trends in Ireland

Summary

Using data obtained from the Irish Statistical Bulletin (1972) we have calculated changes in the meanper capita daily consumption of the major foodstuffs and nutrients from 1961 to 1971. A comparison of the intake of the major nutrients with the recommended daily intakes of these nutrients indicates that the populationas a whole is (i) changing its preferences with respect to the major foodstuffs, the consumption of bread, flour and potatoes being considerably reduced while pigmeat, beef and margarine consumption is increased; (ii) consuming a mixture of protein from vegetable and animal sources which is “ideal”; (iii) receiving the recommended dietary allowance of the principal nutrients with the exception of vitamin D and the minerals sodium and magnesium, from the 13 principal foodstuffs in the diet and (iv) receiving an increasing amount of its daily caloric intake from animal fat.