Supposedly it's mostly in the form of vegetable oils. (Consumption of animal origin fats, including butter, is actually down.) Based on that, I could hazard a f

Supposedly it's mostly in the form of vegetable oils. (Consumption of animal origin fats, including butter, is actually down.) Based on that, I could hazard a few guesses: My first would be that a lot of it is that increases in the availability of vegetable fats that are solid at room temperature (originally thanks to hydrogenation, now thanks to more refined palm and coconut oils) means that it's easy for food manufacturers to add more fat to packaged foods without them seeming greasy. There's also the whole "Mediterranean diet" thing fueling the perception that olive oil is a health food and making us feel comfortable drizzling it all over everything we eat. It's perhaps relatively healthy compared to other fats, but it's still darn near the most calorie-dense food possible. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the amount of french fries that get piled on one's plate as a side at restaurants has doubled over the past 50 years. Heck, even avocado toast. Avocados are way more available than they used to be. Everyone thinks of them as a healthy food, but they're chock full of fat.