AMERICANS CUT FAT INTAKE BUT MUNCHING MORE SNACKS.

Byline: Robert Greene Associated Press 

Americans are eating four times as much Mexican food and three times as much popcorn and pretzels as they did two decades ago. We are managing to eat less fat, but putting on the pounds anyway.

An Agriculture Department survey of 5,500 Americans in 1994 found that half ate no fruit on a given day. They readily passed up dark green and deep yellow vegetables, despite official advice to eat more. One in three adults was overweight. Children were getting off to a sweet start, switching from milk to soft drinks or apple-based juices.

The survey came out two weeks after the government issued updated guidelines telling people to eat more grains, eat five helpings of fruits and vegetables a day and try to get 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day.

Americans did report eating a lot more grain, but that category included a 200 percent increase in snacks and a 60 percent increase in ready-to-eat cereals. Consumption of "grain mixtures" such as pizza and lasagna more than doubled. Ethnic foods such as Mexican cooking added to the mixtures.

Because many foods were listed, ethnic foods included low-fat items like salsa and rice, or fattier ones such as refried beans.

The reported tripling in snack foods such as crackers, popcorn, pretzels and corn chips astonished even the industry.

"Wow!" said Jane Schultz, of the Snack Foods Association, based in Alexandria, Va. The industry estimates that the average American ate 22 pounds of salty snacks in 1994, up from 17.5 pounds in 1988. But the industry numbers don't go any farther back. "I wouldn't say it's out of the realm of possibility," she said.

The most progress came in the fat department, where the message to lower consumption has been around the longest. Americans got 33 percent of their calories from fat in 1994, down from 40 percent in 1977-1978, but still above the recommended 30 percent.

Two-thirds of adults got more than the limit for all fats. Nearly as many got more than their limit for saturated fat, set at 10 percent of daily calories.

"It shows that education initiatives toward consuming less fat and consuming foods that contain less fat have had an effect," said Lori G. Borrud, survey leader at the Agricultural Research Service.

Still, survey participants - children included - consumed 6 percent more calories, averaging nearly 2,000 a day. Nearly a third of the men and half the women reported that they rarely engaged in vigorous exercise - defined, Borrud says, as "enough to work up a sweat."

Even accounting for a 1-inch average gain in height, people averaged 11 pounds to 12 pounds heavier. Based on those measurements, one in three adults was overweight, compared with one in five in the 1977-1978 survey.

"The calories have gone up some, but what we think is important also is that people aren't exercising," Borrud said.

The American Medical Association, citing data from the Agriculture Department and National Cancer Institute, recently reported that the closest many children get to a vegetable is french fries.

Numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics show a similar rise in overweight adults. The United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association has found that people, when asked to record menus, eat less produce than they thought.

The American Medical Association report noted the influence of fast food. Tuesday's release noted that half the people had eaten out during the survey period, which covered two days. There was a 50 percent rise in meals eaten away from home by women and children.

Children under 5 drank 16 percent less milk than in the late 1970s, but they drank 23 percent more soft drinks and four times as many non-citrus juices, such as those from apples and grapes.