We've been pretty focused on our "new" diet for a while now. After 40+ years of eating omnivorously, the switch to vegan eating hasn't been automatic. So we've looked for help along the way. We've read a number of books, visited a slew of websites and blogs, and generally immersed ourselves in what people eat and what they avoid.
Today, I stumbled across a photo series I'd seen before. It's an excerpt from the book: Hungry Planet: What the World Eats
, in which the author shows, pictorially, what a typical family eats during the course of a week around the world, and the equivalent cost of that food in US$ . The differences in eating across cultures is astounding!
Time magazine has a 10-picture excerpt of What the World Eats, and if you haven't seen it before, I highly recommend taking a look. The families in Todos Santos, Baja, Mexico (slide 2) and Ujjain, central India (slide 4) appear to eat the most healthfully. What I find most amazing is that the less developed nations seem to be eating better than the more developed nations. The exception being the family from Kouakourou, Ivory Coast, Africa (the 6th slide). I cannot believe that so many people can exist on such a small amount of food. They all look happy and healthy, but what can you truly tell from a photograph? That particular photograph makes me very grateful that I live in a place where food is abundant enough that I can choose what I would like to eat.
Related Information:
- World Vegan Day
- World Vegan Day – Celebrating 65 Years of Veganism
- In Other’s Words — Vegan Quotes
- Food Shortages and Vegan Eating
- You Can Change The World
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Wow. Check outhow much packaged crap the more developed nations are eating. Everything comes in a box! And it’s all red. I guess that the marketing guys think red sells!
The family in Todos Santos looks like a farmers market stall.
And is the family in Erpeldange actually eating that dog? Because I’m assuming they’re eating that chicken.
Hi David,
That was amazing to see, wasn’t it?
I laughed about the dog. I seriously doubt he’s considered food. My guess is he and the chicken are family pets… but they probably eat the eggs.
Wow, that was fantastic – thank you for the link. It’s so amazing. US, Canada, Europe, Australia – almost entirely packaged foods with little fruit/vegetable representation. It’s probably why we’re all so darn fat. India, Guatemala, Turkey had these beautiful arrays of fruits and vegetables. It made me want to move
Narwhal? Seal stew? ew… never going to Greenland.
Hi Lisa,
I guess you eat what you can get, especially in an arctic environment. It’s probably difficult to be vegan there!
Glad you enjoyed the link. We were fascinated!