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What the World Eats
- decode 16y agoI prefer this version, since it lists each item in the pictures, as well as breaking down the expenditures by category: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5005952 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5005952 Some interesting bits: The German family spends more on vitamins than any other category. The family from Chad gets $24.37 worth of free rations from relief organizations. Almost half of the Americans' expenditures are on Fast Food and Beverages.
- eru 16y agoThose crazy Germans with their vitamin pills. They should just drive over to the Netherlands once a year, and buy their drugs there. It's way cheaper than in Germany. Also all the bottled water is just crazy. German tap water is excellent in quality in all areas, and I like the taste in most areas I sampled. And never ever drink the Flensburger malt beer (unless you find a version that uses actual sugar and not sweetener). The frozen pizza from Dr Oedtker is quite good. But for most other stuff, they could as well have bought it at Aldi for cheaper, instead of going for the higher priced branded items. I guess I should stop ranting.
- sedachv 16y agoThey also consume a ridiculous amount of bread (+pasta), dairy and sugary beverages. And probably then wonder why they get fat.
- d_c 16y agoThey don't look that fat :)
- jules 16y agoFirst, they aren't fat. Second, how can you judge this without knowing how much calories they burn?
- sedachv 16y agoIgnore the kids, look at the adults. They're not morbidly obese, but they are carrying excess fat. Without a change in diet, or adopting the training regime of a competitive athlete (do you know how many calories you need to burn every day to stay lean on that kind of diet?), this is likely to trend to obesity as they age.
- jules 16y agoI am not criticizing their diet. Look at their picture: http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2007/hungry_planet/15.jpg http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2007/hungry_planet/1... These people are NOT obese. They are not super lean either, but for their age this looks like a perfectly healthy weight. In fact they are relatively lean compared to the other families.
- sedachv 16y agoLook at photographs of people 60, 80, 100 years ago. The relative perception of obesity in the US is extremely distorted. The average male is 5 feet 9 inches (176cm) and 195 pounds (88 kilograms). That is overweight. The adults in the photo are also overweight.
- jules 16y agoI'm not from the US, and neither are the people we're talking about. These people look like they weigh less than 88 kilograms, which I agree would be obese for 176cm. Are you obese (by your own standards)?
- sedachv 16y agoCan you at least bother to look up the definition of the key words before arguing? Obese: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity Overweight: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overweight http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overweight
- whyenot 16y agothe American, Italian and Mexican families appear to consume equal or greater amounts.
- sedachv 16y agoWhich is why it's no surprise that the Mexican family is also overweight. But actually look at the photos of the American and Italian families. The Italians have almost half the food the Germans have, a small fraction of sugar drinks, and very little dairy. They also have one more child in the family. Which is why they look fit.
- starkfist 16y agoIt looks like the bottled water is soda water. I am also a sucker for fizzy water.
- chipsy 16y agoThis is the second time I'm looking at these photos. They're very memorable.
- ubernostrum 16y agoDo I want to know what a "mayonnaise sandwich" is?
- viggity 16y agowould you rather have a mayonnaise sandwich or "Pig's knuckles with carrots, celery and parsnips". I think I may go for the mayonnaise sandwich.
- ciudilo 16y agoPeople drink Coke everywhere...
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- gcheong 16y agoA breakdown of per-capital consumption of Coca-cola products worldwide: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/ar/pdf/2009-per-capita-consumption.pdf http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/ar/pdf/2009-pe...
- autarch 16y agoIt would've been very interesting to see some examples of people who've chosen to eat diets that are not the standard diet for their country. In particular, I'd like to see what vegans, raw foodists, Atkins dieters, and so on are eating. I think the contrast between an American vegan and "Standard" American diet would be pretty interesting.
- sofuture 16y agoI'd like to see the contrast between American vegan and Atkins/Paleo.
- byrneseyeview 16y agoMy girlfriend and I did it. We are fairly close to the paleo diet, although in this case there's some Matzo for passover. http://eruv.livejournal.com/190127.html http://eruv.livejournal.com/190127.html
- sliverstorm 16y agoI want to live in Sicily. Also, good god. The North Carolina example is an assault of colors on my eyes.
- mitjak 16y agoDon't worry, it's all corn under wraps.
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- viggity 16y agothe Ecuadorians love their hats, don't they?
- hristov 16y agoKudos to those Germans for putting their beer front and center.
- joubert 16y agoInstead of cereal, some of these families should eat real food for breakfast.
- petercooper 16y agoWith a couple of exceptions, they've picked some rather wealthy, atypical families. I start putting my rant hat on if we go over $90 in a week and that's double what I know some people spend each week. We're in the UK, 3 strong, have a reasonable diet with good meals each day and several treats. We'd all weigh 500lbs if we spent $500 a week on food (or be permanently glued to the toilet after eating non-stop fruit)..!