How much do we eat during the Super Bowl? Chew on these numbers
Posted: January 28, 2015 - 3:26pm

How much do Americans eat during the Super Bowl? The website Mashable has compiled a handy graphic that's making its way around the web. It's impressive, to say the least. But we have a hard time believing some of the statistics here. Let's have a look inside the website's numbers:1.23 billion -- That's the number of chicken wings Americans reportedly scarfed down, according to the Mashable graphic. That's nearly four chicken wings for every person in the United States. (We're assuming these are half-wings, not the complete wing.) That's a remarkable number to begin with. But consider that there are a reported 10% of Americans who eat no meat, and another nearly 30 million either under the age 5 or over 85 who probably aren't downing hot wings, and that would put the number at about five wings per person. 120 million -- This is the weight, in pounds, of all the avocados that go into our game-day guacamole. It takes about two avocados to make one pound of guacamole, according to CookingLight.com. So that's about 240 million avocados, or about 500 tasty calories of guac per person.14,500 -- That's the weight, in tons, of corn and potato chips we're reportedly eating while watching the game. It works out to around 29 million pounds, or about 1.5 ounces of chips per American. That's conveniently just the size of Lay's largest single-serving bag of chips, which seems about right.4 million -- This is the number of pizza pies we devour on Super Bowl Sunday, according to Mashable. At eight slices a pie, this works out to just one slice of pizza for every 10 Americans during the game. This is a surprisingly low number, especially since the country's two biggest pizza chains, Pizza Hut and Domino's, reported selling nearly this many pies between them for game day in 2013. Independent pizza parlors still far outnumber chains, so we're willing to put money down saying this one is off the mark.325.5 million -- This is the number -- in gallons -- of beer we drink during the big game, according to the Mashable graphic. This may be the toughest to imagine. Why? Because it's nearly a gallon of beer per American -- or roughly 10 bottles of beer. Factor out those under 20 and those over 80 -- we'll call "drinking age" 20 to 79 -- and it's 15 bottles of beer per person. The website SaveonBrew.com in 2012 posted a more believable estimate, citing numbers from consumer research firm Nielsen. It said 50 million cases of beer were sold for the Super Bowl. That works out to about five beers per adult 20 to 80. Still high, but considering that most people probably overstock for their parties, it might be on the mark. We have to assume at least some of these Mashable numbers were unverified, and the web being what it is, continue to spread in new reports and graphics as facts. So, take them for what they're worth, enjoy the game, and do your best to stay on the "under" side of that average beer consumption number.