Those of you who plan to eat yourselves into a food coma this Thanksgiving aren’t alone.
As our second favorite holiday nears, Insider.com tallied how much food we'll pack away on November 28 (and the days following).
1. Let's start with the turkey. According to the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association, we'll eat about 46 million turkeys on Thanksgiving. That's roughly one turkey for every person in Spain. And with the average turkey weighing 30 pounds, Americans will consume nearly 1.4 billion pounds of bird.
2. All that food means all those calories. Calorie Control Council estimates we'll each eat about 4,500 calories on turkey day. The New York Times said it's much less — 2,500 — but stilll about a full days' calories in one meal.
3. About 40% of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup yearly sales will be next week, so we can make green bean casserole.
4. It might be Americans' least favorite side dish, but we'll still eat about 80 million pounds of cranberries, including 5,062,500 gallons of canned, jellied cranberry sauce, according to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center.
» Survey: What is America's least favorite Thanksgiving menu item?
5. You can't have Thanksgiving without potatoes. Well, you can, but why? According to the National Grocers Association, we'll buy about 214 million pounds of potatoes and 50 million pounds of sweet potatoes for the holiday. That doesn't include the 3 million pounds of prepared mashed potatoes people will buy. For perspective, Insider stated, the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier weighs about 204 million pounds, according to 24/7 Wall Street.
» Georgia grocery stores, pharmacies open on Thanksgiving Day 2019
6. With all the cooking going on, it's not unheard of to buy some items already prepared. That seems to be true for pies. Whether pumpkin, apple or pecan, we'll buy 18.9 million pies for Thanksgiving, according to the National Grocers Association.
» Places to buy delectable Thanksgiving pies in metro Atlanta
Don't think you need to contribute to these numbers, though. Atlanta has lots of restaurants open on Thanksgiving. You can even get your Thanksgiving dinner to-go and eat at home, if that's your thing.
About the Author
