Time’s website has an intriguing photoessay up, chronicling the differences in the average diets of families across the globe. The photos are taken from Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluzio. Quite the fascinating insight, especially when comparing the costs of eating per week. Out of that set, the German family has the highest cost, with an average of $500 per week (!):

There’s something amusing about the regimented appearance of this food. Orderly Germans!

In contrast, this family living in a refugee camp in Chad spend less per week on food than the cost of one Big Mac:

Flipping through the gallery, it is also striking to note the heavy representation of Coca-Cola products in the diets of First World Countries. Packaging seems to correlate heavily with price. And then there’s this:

This family looks awfully proud to be standing next to the most artery clogging diet ever.
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Though their diet is certainly more filling, I question if this family is that much more nourished than the refugee camp people. I don’t think it’s a question of poverty; they seem to be comfortably middle-class and are spending more on average per week than this other US family (though, curiously enough, they seem to solely subsist on breakfast food):

Seriously, do these people just eat cereal for dinner most nights?

Look at all that candy! Insert British teeth joke here.

I am pretty envious of this spread, although not so much of having to share it with like twenty other people, I suppose.

Flipping through this inspires me to keep track of what is eaten in my household per week. My roommate Andy probably spends the most, since he tends to eat out for lunch and has lots of frozen dinners (and they are of the organic-section variety). Eli probably spends the least, being both a penny-pincher and a shrimp-weight. I typically bring my lunch and prefer to cook at home, but I also like consuming costlier foods, like salmon, fresh herbs and stinky cheeses (mm, stinky cheese).

Last month, the three of us collectively spent quite a bit of money on shared groceries, so I’ll welcome any tactic that will drive those costs down. I love food too much to go quite as far as this guy, but I am curious to see how much per day I actually spend on food. Booze excluded from the budget, of course.

***Note: Apparently in the book, the Revis family (the one with the most packaged food) felt kind of ashamed by all the processed food, and were working on incorporating more fresh produce into their diet. Good for them!