The Amount of Food Consumed by a Man During his Lifetime

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!


On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


M. Alexis Soyer, the celebrated professor of the gastronomic art,entered into a calculation, which he published in the London Times, as to the amount of flesh, fowl and fish eaten by a man in an average lifetime, and among the items we find the following enormous quantities :— i 30 oxen, 200 sheep, 100 calves, 200 lambs, 50 pigs ; in poultry, 1,200 fowls, 300 turkeys, 150 geese, 400 ducklings, 263 pigeons; 1,400 partridges, pheasants and grouse, 600 woodcock and snipe, 600 wild pigeons and teal; 450 plovers, ruffs, and reeves; 800 quails, ortolan and dotterills, and a few guillemots and other foreign birds ; also 500 hares and rabbits, 40 deer, 120 guinea fowl, 10 peacocks, and 360 wild fowl. In the way of fish, 120 turbot, 140 salmon, 120 cod, 260 trout, 400 mackerel, 300 whitings, 800 soles and slips, 400 flounders, 400 red mullet, 200 eels, 150 haddock, 400 herrings, and 5,000 smelts; and some hundred thousands of those delicious silvery whitebait, besides a few hundred species of fresh water fishes. In shellfish, 20 turtle, 30,000 oysters, 1,500 lobsters or crabs, 300,000 prawns, shrimps, sardines, and anchovies.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 13 Issue 39This article was published with the title “The Amount of Food Consumed by a Man During his Lifetime” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 13 No. 39 (), p. 310
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican06051858-310b

It’s Time to Stand Up for Science

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.

I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.

If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.

In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.

There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.

Thank you,

David M. Ewalt, Editor in Chief, Scientific American

Subscribe