American Food Timeline (from Native people to present day, with free printable PDF)

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As we delve into this overview of the American Food Timeline, we uncover some surprising facts.

Who would have guessed that infant formula and high-heat processed vegetable oils were already developed and marketed as healthy in the late 19th century? Or that Americans were consuming more processed cheese than real cheese as early as the 1940s?

As we reflect on where we’ve been and where we are today, may it inspire us to return to the wisdom of eating simply — focusing on protein, foods grown in season and the understanding that a balanced diet does not come from loading up on “superfoods” or processed foods.

This article includes a free printable PDF infographic with highlights of the timeline.

American Food Timeline

This article was rewritten in 2026 to take advantage of new research and findings. Whereas my original timeline began with our first written record of the Native American diet from Christopher Columbus, this updated timeline includes many new dates and details — plus, it now begins with archaeological evidence we have of coprolites (ancient dried feces!). I’m pretty excited about these new additions to the article and what they reveal! I hope you enjoy the timeline as much as I do.

• Pre-1400s — Coprolites dating roughly from A.D. 400 to 1300 reveal a diet that resulted from diverse seasonal foraging — one that was high in fiber and protein. Foraged proteins include insects and seafood. The foraged produce includes seeds, flowers, pollen found in both, leaves, stems and roots. Other staples include rabbit, maize and beans.
  • (Note: A diet high in protein and fiber is exactly the diet I now believe to be most beneficial to humans. We need these two things to dietarily thrive. We also need to avoid toxins and repeatedly eating foods high in toxic compounds (including heavy toxic metals) year round, for example, chocolate, mangoes, kale or sweet potatoes. Fiber sources should vary based on the season, or be very low in toxins naturally, for example, apples.)
• 1493 — Christopher Columbus sees the Native people of the Americas and remarks at their beautiful, robust stature and health. He eats of the foods and describes them with awe and pleasure.
• 1500-1600 — Pemmican is consumed by Native Americans as a way of preserving their meat source. Locusts and other insects are not stigmatized, but consumed readily, according to availability, as with all food sources. They also use a symbiotic growing practice of planting corn, beans and squash together. One provides height structure, the next, nitrogen to the soil, the third, defense against weeds and soil moisture.
• 1600-1700s — Rice becomes a staple of the American diet and a major cash crop.
• 1780s — The average American consumes about six pounds of sugar per year.
• 1800s — Lewis and Clark and the new settlers moving west subsist on huge amounts of wild protein and very few vegetables. Their diet sometimes includes up to nine pounds of protein a day and leaves them severely constipated. The settlers eat corn, beans, rice and wheat or rye flour.
• 1830 — Per capita, American consumption of sugar is 15 lbs, mostly comprised of molasses. (Today, the consumption of sugar is 130 to 150 lbs per person, mostly comprised of high-fructose corn syrup — with lower income Americans consuming the most.)
• 1869 — Formula is first marketed in America as being superior to breast milk.
• 1876 — Treaty with Hawaii: Sugar beet farms surge, and Americans continue to increase their consumption of sugar.
• 1880-1910 — One out of three people live on a farm and eat from that farm.
• 1890s-1950 — While many Americans copy the lavish spreads and variety made popular by Queen Victoria, a supposed health-food expert creates meat alternatives and corn flakes. Dr. Kellogg is soon rivaled by his former patient C.W. Post, who introduces Grape Nuts.
• 1899 — Chemist David Wesson introduces high-heat processing of vegetable oils with his application on cottonseed oil. His discovery begins a century of misinformation, propaganda and America’s switch to vegetable oils from butter and lard.
• 1910 — 70% of Americans enjoy lard for cooking and baking. Butter consumption is still high; and the mortality rate from heart disease is below 10%.
• 1920 —  During prohibition, Americans start drinking more soda (which increases their intake of sugar).
• 1910-1940 — George Washington Carver, a revolutionary mind in science and industry, and an African American man, improves southern farming by advocating for a former Native American method of crop rotation for improved soil health.
• 1911-1917 — Leading up to and during WW1, butter and eggs are in short supply, and Crisco provides a recipe alternative for making cakes without these dairy ingredients.
• 1920-1950 — Convenience foods soar in supply and demand. They include dairy-free cheeses like Velveeta, canned foods, Jell-o, Kool-Aid, margarine, non-dairy whipped cream and frozen foods. (Apparently spelling also went out the door at this time: Fake words indicate fake ingredients.) Several animal experiments establish the first vitamins, but later critics contend that some of the experiments were flawed.
• 1929-1939 — The Great Depression means decreased nutrition to most families, less food, less meat and produce, because they are more expensive.
• 1930s – Weston A. Price travels among indigenous people groups comparing their dental health with their diets and the contrast with Western dental health and diet. (While some of his conclusions are correct, others later lead to a hyper-focus on supposed super-foods and vitamins that creates new diseases among its proponents.)
• 1930 — Margarine consumption exceeds butter consumption for the first time.
• 1937 — Cottonseed oil consumption exceeds coconut oil for the first time, and continues in this pattern.
• 1940s — Peanut butter is economical, popular and a common food for soldiers during WW2. Monosodium glutamate comes into use, borrowed from the Chinese who developed it in 1908. Factory-made cheeses take the place of traditional cheese making; Americans now eat more processed cheese than real cheese.
• 1942 — The war causes a brief sugar crash (that doesn’t last long). Sugar is used for explosives and antiseptics; plus, access to cane fields in the Pacific are either cut off or destroyed.
• 1943 — The U.S. begins adding vitamins and minerals to bread and grain products to make up for nutritional deficiencies.
• 1948 — Obesity and diabetes are on the rise as Americans eat less animal fat and increase their consumption of trans fats. Reddi-Whip debuts as Americans embrace vulgarity and instant satisfaction, plus less work in the kitchen.
• 1949 — The FDA publishes what becomes known as the “black book,” an industry guideline for appraising the toxicity of chemicals in processed foods. The pasteurization of milk becomes mandatory.
• 1940s-1950s — Natural and artificial flavors are invented. Bouillons and processed sauces take the place of homemade stocks. Cake mixes, instant pie, roll mixes, frozen fish sticks and Cheez Whiz are greeted with enthusiasm.
• 1950-1960s — The huge variety of processed and packaged foods increase, exalted and enjoyed by most American families. The backyard barbecue also comes into vogue. Microwave dinners are launched with great success. Ancel Keys, an American professor, is followed as he leads the country with advice toward a low-fat diet to avoid heart disease.
• 1953 — Swanson introduces frozen dinners, modeled after the trays served on airlines, to serve their own purpose of using up an oversupply of meat, 270 tons of turkey.
• 1955 — McDonalds and Ray Croc introduce the 15 cent hamburger as the “All-American Meal”.
• 1958 — Sweet ‘n Low launches their artificial sweetener containing granulated saccharin, dextrose, cream of tartar, and calcium silicate, and earns U.S. Trademark Registration No. 1,000,000.
• 1961 — Boil-in-bag foods — frozen meals sealed in plastic packages that consumers heat directly in boiling water — enter the market.
• 1960-1970 — Pesticides and genetic engineering, as well as new forms of irrigation, are introduced and utilized by American farmers. Their yield is doubled and even tripled as a result, and many have hopes of ending world hunger with these changes. Aluminum cans are introduced for foods and beverages. Plastic milk containers debut.
• 1970s — The post-Vietnam culture includes advocacy for vegetarianism.  Meanwhile, Dr. Atkins get wealthy with his high-fat diet books. And the FDA rules hydrogenated soybean oil as “safe.” The FDA bans Red No. 2 color in food, but it’s replaced by Red No. 3 and then Red No. 40.
• 1980s — Buffalo, ostrich, antelope and elk make a come-back, especially in certain restaurants, provided by small specialty farms. Obesity is still on the rise. Aspartame, marketed as NutraSweet, replaces saccharin in diet soft drinks.
• 1987 — The American Diabetic Association advocates for a vegetarian diet.
• 1988 — Kraft introduces Lunchables.
• 1998 — Time Magazine lists the greatest consumer products. Foods included are ConAgra’s Reddi-Whip.
• 1991 — Frito-Lay launches Sunchips, their first whole grain chip. Consumers are duped into thinking it’s healthier, despite its vegetable oils and heavy metal (nickel).
• 1999 — The Weston A. Price Foundation is founded, based on misunderstood observations of Ancestral practices and health outcomes, to promote “nutrient-dense” foods and saturated fat. (This diet makes many people sick through encouraging the consumption of cod liver oil and organ meats, in addition to other toxic “superfoods”.)
• 1990s to modern day — Factory farms are called into question. Organic farms rise up all over the nation. More Americans want to know where their food comes from. Misinformation about what’s “healthy” continues as foods like oat bran, pasteurized orange juice and fortified breakfast cereals are marketed for their health benefits. Obesity is over 20% in 49 states.
• 2000s — Food companies target specific generations and promote reduced sodium (for aging baby boomers), probiotics, fiber and omega-3s as health benefits.
• 2004 — Obesity levels exceed 30% of the general population!
• 2005 — Trans fats and saturated fat are wrongly labeled together as “bad fats” by the FDA. Butter outsells margarine, for the first time since 1957!
• 2006 — The market for processed vegetarian foods — including faux meats, non-dairy milks and frozen vegetarian entrées — is estimated to reach $1.17 billion and continues growing steadily.
• 2007 — The American Institute for Cancer Research continues to correlate animal fat and red meat consumption with weight gain and increased risk of cancer. However, they encourage breast feeding and eating fewer processed foods.
• 2009 — 29 states allow the sale and consumption of raw milk in some form. 1% of the American population is vegan.
• 2013 — The American Heart Association continues to teach a low-fat, low cholesterol diet for curing heart disease.
• 2014-2016 — Time Magazine slightly rescinds its earlier defamation of butter: “… research is mounting that saturated fat is better for you than processed carbohydrates like sugar and white bread, which have been linked to diabetes, obesity and heart disease …”. Americans on the whole still avoid fat and choose simple carbohydrate processed foods. Consumer interest in and demand for collagen begins.
• 2015 — The WHO classifies meat as “probably carcinogenic”.
• 2016 — Raw milk remains controversial and inaccessible in some states: “… the sale of raw milk in stores is legal in 13 states. 17 states only permit raw milk sales on farms; 8 of the states that prohibit sales allow acquisition of raw milk only through “cow-share” agreements; and in 20 other states all sales of raw milk are prohibited.” 
• 2018 — Engineer Grant Genereux publishes a series of free ebooks arguing that vitamin A is not a true vitamin but a chronic toxin, sparking ongoing debate within alternative nutrition communities and reversal of diseases for many as they embrace a new form of detoxing.
• 2020-2021 — COVID-19 leads to concerns about a global meat shortage. Beyond Meat, a plant-based meat substitute company that surpassed $150 million in annual revenue in 2019, sees its stock price jump 41 percent. Closing one large beef processing plant reduces the available beef supply by roughly 10 million servings each day. COVID also leads to more home cooking, sourdough baking and grocery delivery.
• 2022 — High protein diets become more popular, spreading from athletes to the general population.
• 2023 — Concerns are raised over ultra-processed foods. Fiber regains popularity as a food additive.
• 2025 — The demand for “clean ingredients” in processed foods increases. One hundred years later, new rodent experiments begin — in an effort to overturn the 1925 animal studies that concluded fat molecule A was a vitamin. (Both mice and gerbil experiments show that rodents don’t need any “vitamin” A to thrive, nor do humans.)
• 2026 — Weight loss medications like Ozempic and Wegovy continue to gain popularity, with more than 12% of the population using them! The result is fewer cravings for fatty and sugary foods and eating less overall due to a decreased appetite, plus a 5.5% lower grocery bill. Overall, protein becomes the overall nutrition marketing message for processed foods. Consumers favor whole foods over processed foods, but organic ingredients still lag behind. Sales of plant-based meats continue to steadily decline.

Free printable

Download or print the free infographic PDF here.

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Additional Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15