Choking deaths on food in the US

We would like to note, for the benefit of the cautious reader, that the cause and effect here is not the cause and effect the graph appears to suggest, and yet between 2005 and 2021 American choking deaths and American frozen pizza sales have climbed together (r = 0.959) with the unflappable certainty of two trends who have agreed not to comment on each other. The pepperoni is innocent. The graph is merely graph.

US choking deaths rose from around 4,500 annually to over 5,300, with 80% of the increase concentrated in adults over 65 whose swallow reflexes weaken with age and medication; frozen pizza retail sales climbed from about $3 billion to over $7 billion, with DiGiorno, Red Baron, and the explosion of premium brands (Amy's, Newman's Own) driving the growth. Both are independent consequences of demographic change — an aging population and a convenience-driven food culture — that just happen to share a direction in time. A pepperoni slice is, statistically, a relatively low-risk choking item; the risk concentrates instead around meat, bread, and the unfortunate interaction of dentures with anything substantial.

Please chew. The pizza will wait. So will the graph, politely, regardless of which line we draw first.