What the World Eats

I stumbled across this amazing article , What The World Eats put together by two photo journalists who traveled the world to twenty four different countries, photo documenting how the eating habits of the world differ from country to country.  They took a photo of the families, with a weeks worth of food & groceries around them and showed how much each family spends per week. Some had fast food as well as groceries.  Fifteen of those photos are shown in the article. 

I was fascinated not only by how different the food is, but how different the families look, (some small, some extended) and by how different the kitchens and homes look. I was surprised to see how many Of what I consider to be "American" brands like Kraft, Nabisco and of course Kellogg. There were a lot of Corn flakes, although the ones from Sarajevo looks different, I don't think they are Kellogg. 

The family in the cover photo, is from Ecuador and only spends $32 a week.  That is amazing with all those people. Notice all the fresh food. The family that they showed from the US, had a lot of junk food and hardly any fresh food.  The amount they spent for four people was $352, which seems high to me, but they had a lot of fast food and/or take out.  I am not sure how representative that is of us, but maybe it is. 

I recently had an interesting situation that really contrasted how different two families eat, from the same country, same ethnic background, even the same parents. My sister and her family moved in with us for several months.  They decided to relocate to this area and we were able to have them stay with us while they saved some money and got to know the area. 

She is a couple of years older than me and very, very different.  She buys an incredible amount of junk food, and does not even make an effort to make a healthier choice.  I try to eat pretty healthy with some junk food thrown in.  She didn't even know how to read a nutrition label, when I asked her to pick me up some creamer without any hydrogenated fat.  I was very surprised by that.  I thought everyone knew how to read the labels.  She buys the fatty cuts of meat and adds gobs of butter to everything. 

We were going to take turns cooking for everyone, but it didn't work out.  They wouldn't even try my delicious chicken burgers, or cock pot chili (the only vegeatable they eat is corn) and I couldn't eat most of her food, besides the fat and lack of nutrients, she leaves her food sitting out all day.  LOL, I could write a book about it.  It was quite an experience.  It's hard to believe we grew up in the same family.