I’m back. The Cap’n is still seeing what he can salvage of my documents since our last back-up a month ago, but in the meantime, I’ve been jotting down my ideas for posts on little pieces of paper littered around the house. Here is something I’ve been meaning to write about.
About a month ago, the Israel Food chat list had a comment by a member directing the reader to an online Time gallery of photos entitled “What the World Eats.” It is a series of photos of families all over the world in their homes, with a spread of the foods they purchase for a week arranged in front of them. Captions provide the family’s name, location, how much they spend on groceries, and their favorite dishes. Part I is 15 photos of families; Part II includes 10 more photos of families; and Part III is photos of markets around the world. These images were shot by the photographer Peter Menzel for his book Hungry Planet. It’s a fascinating thing to check out. What kinds of foods do they prepare? How much fresh fruit and vegetables do they buy? How much meat? How much fish? How much whole grain? How much processed food? What do they drink?
For example, the Manzo family of Sicily spends $206.11 a week on a diet that consists mostly of bread, fresh fruit and vegetables, and a few junk items like Frosted Flakes and Pepsi. The Aboubakar family of Chad spends $1.23 a week on pulses, a couple of limes, and (when they can get it), sheep meat. (As one looks through these photos, it’s amazing how much of the world eats mutton.) The Revis family of North Carolina (USA) spends $341.98 on what appears to be pizza, Burger King, Frito Lay products, Coca Cola, and packaged meat. Except for two bunches of grapes and a couple of tomatoes, fresh fruits and vegetables are conspicuously absent. (Their food bill would be considerably less if they were to cook at home more.) The Dong family in China spends $155.06 on meat, fish, eggs, dairy, fruits and vegetables, and one fast-food meal. The Ahmed family of Cairo has probably never seen processed food in their lives. Their diet consists of fresh vegetables, rice, a little meat, flat bread, and almost no junk at all. (And that’s for a family of 12.) Their weekly food bill is $68.53. The Ayme family of Ecuador spends $31.55 on plantains, potatoes, a few greens, root vegetables, and rice. Not a can of coke or a bag of chips in sight. The Madsens in Greenland spend $277.12 almost entirely on food that comes in boxes. Their favorite foods are polar bear, narwhal skin, and seal stew. (There is a picture of them in Part III hauling home a seal they’ve killed themselves.)
If you’re into food and sociology, check it all out. Notice how many members of the family there are, and how many generations eating under one roof. What do their dining rooms look like? How many of them have television sets near the dining room table? How do the people look (i.e. lean or doughy)?
What would your family’s diet look like if it were featured here?
Shimshonit 
[…] 12, 2009 by Shimshonit In addition to my own post on my blog today, Ilana-Davita has been sponsoring a Mesorah project on her blog. My humble […]
Someone on a weblist for English teachers had pointed this out before but I still find it fascinating.
The British family frightens me! So much junk food.
I like the non-Western diets. When I recently visited America, and had access to a kitchen, I mostly ate bean (lentil, black, red, kidney, chickpea, and/or roman) stews with tomato paste (no salt!), onions and greens (spinach, kale, mustard, turnip, and/or collard). I would then add some spices, such as cumin, curry powder, cayan or habanero pepper, bay leaves, etc.
I remember at one point, I ate a two-pound can of black beans (rinsed of salt, of course!), and I was still hungry! At yeshiva, on the rare but glorious occasions when they have beans, I’ll usually eat four or five solid bowls of nothing but beans.
(Oh, chickpeas and/or black beans taste *great* with cumin. Just chickpeas/black beans and cumin; that’s all. But lentils are my favorite bean, followed by black beans, chickpeas and roman beans. Roman beans are great because when merely boiled by themselves without anything extra, they taste like baked beans, as if they had the brown sugar and salt and tomato and such.)
And of course, fruits were important. I can eat about four to five apples and bananas daily. Finally, I’d have about three or four pots (no, not cups!) of tea daily.
But for breakfast, I’d have whole-grain cereals with tons of nuts and dried fruit (muesli and Post Great Grains are both fantastic), with Silk Extra! soymilk.
I also eat Israeli salad with copious amounts of whole-seed tehina (not the hulled seeds!). On the very rare occasion that I’ll eat bread, I love it with feta cheese and skhug (the pungency and spiciness complement each other nicely).
Oh, but I also did eat a lot of sourdough pretzels and tortilla chips.
These images were shot by the photographer Peter Menzel for his book “Hungry Planet”.
Ilana-Davita: Me too. I was impressed that the Madsens in Greenland weren’t chubbier. But I have also heard that people in different parts of the world are able to metabolize foods differently.
Michael: We are big legume and vegetable eaters too. It makes us appreciate living in Israel all the more since the produce here is so fresh and tasty. (Very little imported produce here, as opposed to in the US.)
Jennie: Thank you for the photo credit. That information is on the Time website, but I have also edited my post to include the photographer’s name.
[…] What the world eats, a post by Shimshonit […]
I am totally ashamed of the British representation there – but sadly, I think that is pretty much standard for your ‘average family’. We eat much more fruit and vegetables and very little processed food, thankfully.