USA

American culinary arts are similar to those in other Western countries. Wheat is the primary cereal grain. Traditional American cuisine uses ingredients such as turkey, white-tailed deer venison, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup, indigenous foods employed by Native Americans and early European settlers. Slow-cooked pork and beef barbecue, crab cakes, potato chips, and chocolate chip cookies are distinctively American styles. Soul food, developed by African slaves, is popular around the South and among many African Americans elsewhere. Syncretic cuisines such as Louisiana creole, Cajun, and Tex-Mex are regionally important. Fried chicken, which combines Scottish and African American culinary traditions, is a national favorite. Iconic American dishes such as apple pie, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs derive from the recipes of various European immigrants. So-called French fries, Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos, and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are widely consumed.During the last two decades of the twentieth century, Americans` daily caloric intake rose 24 percent, as the share from food consumed outside the home went from 18 to 32 percent.Frequent dining at fast food outlets such as McDonald`s is closely associated with what government researchers call the American `obesity epidemic.` The popularity of well-promoted diets such as the Atkins Nutritional Approach has sent sales of `carb-conscious` processed food soaring