The pie charts illustrate how the average proportion of three potentially harmful nutrients if consumed excessively, varies across four common meals in the United States.
Overall, people are more inclined to consume sodium and saturated fat during dinner, while added sugar is ingested most frequently during snacks. Meanwhile, breakfast seems to be the most balanced meal with an even distribution of the three nutrients.
Looking first at the rate of sustenance contained in dinner and snacks, people consume 43% of the total daily sodium intake during dinner, which is nearly twice as high as the intake of added sugar and more than 6% higher than that of saturated fat. In contrast, snacks present a markedly different scenario, accounting for nearly half of total sugar consumption, which is double the intake of saturated fat and triple that of sodium.
Moving on to the remaining meals, Americans receive a negligible amount of sodium, added sugar, and saturated fat, ranging from 14% to 16%, making it the healthiest meal of the day. After that, the following meal makes up nearly a third of the total sodium intake, which is more than 3% higher than that of saturated fat and 10% higher than that of free sugar.