Community Chat

[JustJules]

Here is a link to one of the related stories about this. It gives the cost of what each family spends in the equivalent of US$ and tells a little about why they purchase and eat what they do. Also, for anyone who is interested in more work by the photographer that decided to do this project, his name is Peter Menzel.

http://misc.likes.com/what-a-week-of-groceries-looks-like-around-the-world?page=1

[raven-blackbird]

I'm good with Mexico's diet........didn't see any red meat at all, saw some seafood in a big bowl........Australia's diet, I think I would end up starving to death LOL...................................raven

[tansy]

On 1/3/2014 Jules5280 said:

Here is a link to one of the related stories about this. It gives the cost of what each family spends in the equivalent of US$ and tells a little about why they purchase and eat what they do. Also, for anyone who is interested in more work by the photographer that decided to do this project, his name is Peter Menzel.

http://misc.likes.com/what-a-week-of-groceries-looks-like-around-the-world?page=1

That was interesting. Thanks for posting it.

[JustJules]

On 1/3/2014 tansy said:

On 1/3/2014 Jules5280 said:

Here is a link to one of the related stories about this. It gives the cost of what each family spends in the equivalent of US$ and tells a little about why they purchase and eat what they do. Also, for anyone who is interested in more work by the photographer that decided to do this project, his name is Peter Menzel.

http://misc.likes.com/what-a-week-of-groceries-looks-like-around-the-world?page=1

That was interesting. Thanks for posting it.

You're welcome. I found it interesting,especially comparing what is spent vs what they spend it on. I wish I could remember who originally posted this topic several months ago, I suppose it would be in the forum archives unless it got poofed.

[Kachina624]

Mexico seemed to have the most fresh fruits and veggies. Oranges seem to be a universal favorite. Do American families really eat that much fast food?

[mistriTsquirrel]

My diet is most like the Mexico pic...except I don't drink pop very much or eat bread very often.

[mistriTsquirrel]

On 1/3/2014 Irshgrl31201 said:

On 1/3/2014 Jules5280 said:

On 1/3/2014 Irshgrl31201 said:

Nearly everything in the US picture is processed. I know we eat a lot more processed food in the US but I don't really know anyone in my personal life who eats that much processed food in a week. Do you? I am not saying it isn't true but I just personally don't know people who eat all that junk. Even when I was broke I ate a lot more fruits and veggies, whole grains and beans and lentils.

Sadly Irshgrl, I think it is a representation of many US families that just no longer cook, or at least don't cook much. It is so simple to prepare healthy, nutritious and tasty meals without being a gourmet chef. What they spend on all that junk food (I think they got the 5 junk food groups covered... Pizza, BK, Taco Bell, KFC and McD's) they could purchase healthy produce and meats. It does look like they have some pork chops, but junk food is so much more expensive. For a family of 4 with two teen boys, I bet they easily drop $50 at a fast food window. Put that $50 towards ingredients that could prepare nutritious meals that even provide leftovers. You can get a decent size roasting chicken for about $7.50, less with coupons, bake it, then make soup out of the carcass with celery, onions, carrots. I think people go the junk food route because they work hard all day and they get tired and it's just easier to dial delivery for pizza or chinese rather than making a healthy meal.

I agree that you can get so much more real food for the money. I worked a whole lot, most times about 70 hrs a week and I would pick a day and cook and freeze that day and that way we would just reheat and it was a lot faster and I also used the crock pot a lot and came home to a great meal. Looking at that table it is easy to see not only why we are so overweight but also have so many more GI problems. I would be in such pain if I ate like that. I would also feel just physically awful with no energy at all.

I now see that EBT cards are being accepted at fast food places which I think is awful. The health and weight problems from that is disgusting.

Agreed.

If you can't afford to purchase food for your family, you are in no position to be buying junk with taxpayer dollars. There is no legitimate reason why taxpayer dollars should fund fast food purchases. That's like asking taxpayers to fund your drug addiction.

If people want to be addicts of any sort then fine...but using other peoples' hard-earned money to do it is unacceptable.

[MaggieToo]

On 1/4/2014 mistriTsquirrel said:

On 1/3/2014 Irshgrl31201 said:

On 1/3/2014 Jules5280 said:

On 1/3/2014 Irshgrl31201 said:

Nearly everything in the US picture is processed. I know we eat a lot more processed food in the US but I don't really know anyone in my personal life who eats that much processed food in a week. Do you? I am not saying it isn't true but I just personally don't know people who eat all that junk. Even when I was broke I ate a lot more fruits and veggies, whole grains and beans and lentils.

Sadly Irshgrl, I think it is a representation of many US families that just no longer cook, or at least don't cook much. It is so simple to prepare healthy, nutritious and tasty meals without being a gourmet chef. What they spend on all that junk food (I think they got the 5 junk food groups covered... Pizza, BK, Taco Bell, KFC and McD's) they could purchase healthy produce and meats. It does look like they have some pork chops, but junk food is so much more expensive. For a family of 4 with two teen boys, I bet they easily drop $50 at a fast food window. Put that $50 towards ingredients that could prepare nutritious meals that even provide leftovers. You can get a decent size roasting chicken for about $7.50, less with coupons, bake it, then make soup out of the carcass with celery, onions, carrots. I think people go the junk food route because they work hard all day and they get tired and it's just easier to dial delivery for pizza or chinese rather than making a healthy meal.

I agree that you can get so much more real food for the money. I worked a whole lot, most times about 70 hrs a week and I would pick a day and cook and freeze that day and that way we would just reheat and it was a lot faster and I also used the crock pot a lot and came home to a great meal. Looking at that table it is easy to see not only why we are so overweight but also have so many more GI problems. I would be in such pain if I ate like that. I would also feel just physically awful with no energy at all.

I now see that EBT cards are being accepted at fast food places which I think is awful. The health and weight problems from that is disgusting.

Agreed.

If you can't afford to purchase food for your family, you are in no position to be buying junk with taxpayer dollars. There is no legitimate reason why taxpayer dollars should fund fast food purchases. That's like asking taxpayers to fund your drug addiction.

If people want to be addicts of any sort then fine...but using other peoples' hard-earned money to do it is unacceptable.

The taxpayers do fund druggies. Think of all the ones on disability because of their addiction. Where do you think their disability checks go? For food! I don't think so.

[Red Cherry]

I am assuming the number of people in each picture is the amount of food they eat for a week? Poor Bhutan has a dozen people for that amount of food and it doesn't seem like that much per person. That being said, all the diets look much healthier than the USA's.

[JustJules]

On 1/4/2014 Red Cherry said:

I am assuming the number of people in each picture is the amount of food they eat for a week? Poor Bhutan has a dozen people for that amount of food and it doesn't seem like that much per person. That being said, all the diets look much healthier than the USA's.

Yes Red Cherry, the pictures represent one week of food for those people pictured. Not sure if you saw my link I posted last night, but I'll post it here again. It actually gives the cost for each family in US$ and shares a little info about what they eat and why. There are some additional families in the link that weren't posted by the OP. A photographer did this as a story. It is kind of interesting that the more "poor" a country is, it seems they eat much healthier, kind of says a lot.

http://misc.likes.com/what-a-week-of-groceries-looks-like-around-the-world?page=1