Around the world: what we eat and how much it costs for week

[groovedaddy]

This is a real eye opener. Go to the link and scroll down a bit to get an idea of what people around the world eat and what they spend for a weeks worth of food.

http://www.everybodygoto.com/2007/10/12/what-people-eat-around-the-world/

[rucky]

1. Egypt wins!

Best food for the least dough.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

2. Egypt's did look really good

It looked very good for you too!

Do you know what the white, eggplant looking things were on the bottom left? They were next to the bell peppers.

[rucky]

4. I just googled "white eggplant" and sure enough... n/t

[hlthe2b]

8. Gotta have that for the baba ghanoush!

Yummm...

[Lone_Star_Dem]

12. I love baba ghanoush

I just didn't know that eggplant came in white mine are all purple. :P

My world is too small. lol!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. This one should make all of us reflect on our own lives

Breidjing Camp - $1.23 a week for food!!! {Sudanese refugees in Chad}

[hlthe2b]

5. Yes,,, Seems the amount of pre-package "crap" versus

non-processed foods, fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and eggs correlates with the $$. However, cooking those foods is an issue for Americans, who are working more and more hours for less and less pay.

Embarrassing isn't it, to have the world see how much pure crap we eat here. Bags after bags of non-nutritive snacks, the remains of fast food and grease-laden pizza....

[DrDebug]

6. Ironically it's the countries between rich and poor

which have the healthiest diets. Mexico, China, Poland and Egypt all have large amounts of vegetables and fruit. Great Britain is as always the worst...

One thing is not representative though and that is the except for the German family none of them seemed to drink alcoholic beverages and even the German family is well below the norm.

[hlthe2b]

9. Factor in what poor US families may be paying for cigarettes...

and God, how badly their diet must be shortchanged.

[carly denise pt deux]

7. with the price of gasoline....we will have to adopt the Egyptian diet

they fed the most people for the least amount and their food looked healthier....the North Carolina bunch needs to stop eating out so much and not buy as much junk food...

Germany has more of a liquid diet than nutritional one

Carly

[HamdenRice]

10. Unfortunately, it's stupid and racist

Notice that the only sub-Saharan African family is in a refugee camp, which enforces the false notion that Africans are unable to feed themselves.

They could have added a family from Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique, or any of a dozen other countries to show what Africans eat.

No, instead they chose a refugee family as "typical" of Africa. Its as mind-numbingly stupid as showing what an Albanian Kosovar family in a refugee camp eats to show what "Europeans" eat.

[hlthe2b]

11. No, not representative... Just meant to show the range worldwide

If there is an agenda (and there almost always is), I'd guess it is more to show the western trends that are both costly, wasteful and non-nutritious, rather than a slam or inappropriate stereotype towards Africa. At least that is how I took it. :shrug:

Just an aside, I also would note that Egypt is North Africa

[HamdenRice]

13. Egypt is not in "sub-Saharan Africa"

Notice I wrote "sub-Saharan" Africa, which is commonly thought of as "Black Africa" as opposed to Arab Africa.

And yes, there is an agenda when the only family from an entire region is a refugee family. It reinforces the idea that there are no normal African families or societies. If you inferred it was designed to show something about the wasteful diet of "the west" then other people will infer it's message about "Black Africa."

So yes, it is a racist, stupid collage.

[hlthe2b]

14. Correct me if wrong, but I think the website is posting from email

--an email on the book coming out on the subject. So, I don't know that the book source is so limited in terms of its depiction of Africa. Granted, I perused the website quickly. Did I miss something?

[carly denise pt deux]

17. Here is the content in its original text.......it's a photo essay from Time

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519,00.html

Carly

[groovedaddy]

20. Thanks for the link

I got this in the body of an email with no attribution or link. The one I used I got from googling "Food from around the world - what a family eats in a week and what they spend for it."

[Rock_Garden]

15. You're right - it was a real eye opener. Thanks!

[varun]

16. Also the cheaper diets tend to be vegetable / grain based

they get most of their proteins from legumes,lentils and milk.

Cheap as well as healthy.

[earth mom]

18. Wow-this is fascinating to me.

Notice how our food is mostly packaged? No small wonder the U.S. is the biggest polluter on the planet!

[hlthe2b]

19. I like being close to two health food stores... I can buy in bulk

(rice, beans, flour, etc) and transfer to my containers, rather than pay for all that packaging that is so horrendously polluting. I haven't done so with shampoos and lotions, but that is an option, as well. (But, I do buy those products in extra large size and recycle their containers).

Sadly, though, most people don't live close to anything but the chain grocery stores, whose idea of "bulk" sales is confined to coffee.