Everyday Systems

Exactly what Reinhard has been telling us.

Notice the amounts and the types of food.

Part 1:
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0 ... 19,00.html

Part 2:

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0 ... 16,00.html

Part 3:

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0 ... 90,00.html

That was fascinating! Thank you so much, flightisleavin. What is striking is the amount of packaged food consumed by the families in the US, UK, Japan and Australia. It doesn't look appealing at all. And the coca-cola consumed by the Mexican family! My gosh! For some reason, the Mongolian family's food looked the best to me...meat, bread, eggs and pastries.

I can't wait to get the book to find out exactly what all those families are eating. It was kind of hard to tell in a lot of the pictures. I'd also like to know what's up with the family of six from Turkey, who - it would appear from that picture - eat more than two dozen loaves of bread a week.

Great eye opener! I can't believe all of the pop and pre-packaged food! It would be interesting to see how people from the same areas ate 100 years ago. I think that I'll appreciate rice and beans a bit more!

Fascinating!

It's interesting to see the differences in carbs- all those big bags of grain in the poorer areas, some grains and home-made-looking loaves of bread in the areas I think of as offering "good food," and lots of boxes and packages in "modern" areas.

And the amounts for a week are staggering...

I find myself wondering what a week at our house would look like. Would we have the lovely mounds of produce that some have... or too many plastic bottles and packages...?

I've had this book for a while and find it absolutely fascinating. However, I think one should be wary of taking these examples as typical of each country's food. I'm from the UK and shop at the same supermarket as the British family featured in the book and my weekly food looks nothing like theirs. My food purchases are ingredients like flour for breadmaking, dried beans, fruit, veg, cheese, meat not packaged confectionary, fake butter, sugary drinks and other junk.

I wondered about that Getoka. I am sure it is not representative of all.

I live southern US state and depending upon where I shop I see different carts of food. I had to run to Walmart today and waiting I couldn't help but notice there was a family with a very overweight mom and 3 overweight kids. In their cart were several several bottles of Mountain Dew, Coke and grape juice, sugared cereals, and packages of snack foods, frozen pizza, frozen waffles, milk, big packages of chicken and hamburg. Except for a head of lettuce there were no fruits and vegetables. I looked around and saw other carts pretty much the same way. Most of them were families with children. In some other stores I see more produce and dairy products.

P.S. I used to have a cart like that also minus the soft drinks and cereal.

Fascinating!

Personally I'd like to go to the Indian family's house for dinner

One observation my DH has made about the UK (he's German) is that pre-packed foods ready meals and junk foods etc. are cheaper than fresh produce and whole foods (fresh bread, beans and grains etc.). He feels that the poorest people in the UK are somewhat forced to eat poor quality packaged food rather than fresh food due to cost.

His other observation is that food in general is rediculously expensive in the UK compared to Germany (which isn't considered that cheap either!). Well we thought the UK was expensive, then we went to Ireland and spent 20 Euros on bread, hummous & salad for one modest meal, yikes!

This is fascinating, thanks for the link!

I've seen the book before -- think I might need to order it.

Makes me wonder what my family's week would look like. Not too bad, I think, but it would be interesting to actually see it.

Reinhard

bonnieUK wrote:
His other observation is that food in general is rediculously expensive in the UK compared to Germany (which isn't considered that cheap either!). !

That's interesting Bonnie because I think I'm right in saying that the German family's expenditure was the highest in the book, although a huge amount went on vitamin supplements. I liked the orderly way the German family had arranged all their food

Another very interesting thing is the costs of their food. Some of the families got much more food for their money then others. Also the quality of the food in the poorer families actually seems better, even if somewhat limited in quantity.

Part 1: Page 14 of 16
Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village

Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03
Family recipe: Mushroom, cheese and pork

That is an incredible amount of food for that price. I wish Australia was even 10 times that cost and still it would be much less then we currently pay.

PS: It's "Maccas" not "Mackas". Typical foreign mag