The charts illustrate the percentage of sodium, saturated fats, and added sugar in meals consumed in the USA, and when eaten in excess, it is not good for health.
Overall, there are clear differences in the amount of each nutrient in meals throughout the day. The levels of sodium and saturated fat in dinner are the highest, and their snacks have a high portion of added sugar.
In details, it can be seen that of all three nutrients, sodium has the highest proportion in dinner, with 43%, and the largest proportion in lunch, with 29%. And the saturated fat has pretty much second only to sodium, with 37% in dinner and 26% in lunch. The amount of sugar in an average meal for dinner and lunch was much lower at 23% and 19%, respectively. Turning to breakfast and snacks, which also had comparable percentages, they were both made up of 14% sodium. For saturated fat, snacks contained 21% and breakfast was sightly lower at 16%. Sugar was the greatest disparity and just 16% of breakfast being made up of sugar.
