Here are just a couple shots from a very excellent photo story from Time,What The World Eats. From the book Hungry Planet.
United States: The Revis family of North Carolina
Food expenditure for one week: $341.98
Favorite foods: spaghetti, potatoes, sesame chicken
Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23
Favorite foods: soup with fresh sheep meat
China: The Dong family of Beijing
Food expenditure for one week: 1,233.76 Yuan or $155.06
Favorite foods: fried shredded pork with sweet and sour sauce
Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village
Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03
Family recipe: Mushroom, cheese and pork
There is so much that could be said about these images. What struck you as the most interesting thing? See more amazing pictures in this series here.
What strikes me is that as you go from poor to rich countries the food gets more expensive, processed and packaged. I often wonder how much money we are actually spending on food packaging at the grocery store and if people new the exact amount would they demand less packaging to lower prices?
If i was to be invited for a meal by one of these family, choosing on the food health, i bet i go for either the chinese or the bhutan family.
The Chad family would be OK for a straight diet.
We often joke on our english neighbors for the very poor quality of their food, but things look like terrible in USA too.
It seems like an 7 years old kid had the credit card to buy all the junk food he wish. Americans are great kids ;-)