Once upon a time, Americans sat together at tables thrice daily for "meals," during which nutritious food was consumed. Today, however, market research indicates that we prefer to simply have processed meat products shoveled into our mouths constantly throughout the day. By conveyor belt, if possible.

Ad Age scoops the competition today by landing an interview with Hillshire Brands chief innovation officer Sally Grimes. Suck on that (meat product), competing advertising trade publications! What terrifying insight can this meat product marketing official offer to you, the American consumer?

Gone are three square meals per day. The average American eats 4.9 meals per day. The other interesting stat is that the majority if Americans spend a total of 27 minutes on meal prep for an entire day. … The way consumers are eating today is completely different, and what that means when it comes to meat-centric, or protein-centric foods, is that we have to ensure that they deliver against what we call spontaneous consumption opportunities.

The American dream: Five meals a day, zero cooking, and all the sausage you can take. That is what she said™!

[Ad Age. Photo: Greg/ Flickr]