To illustrate, I'd like to show you some photos of families of various countries, all presenting how much food they need per week. Likewise, I will try to name some groceries and foods that are shown in the photos. At the very end of the post, I will tell you how much money the families have spent on the foods they show in the pictures. Try to guess the amount of money first when you have a look at the photos.
At this point I would like to express a big THANKS to Peter Menzel who came up with this idea and shot these gorgeous photos. If you are interested in his work, click here.
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Our journey starts in Europe. This is the Melander family from Germany. Look at all the food they have! There's frozen pizza, lots of sausage, milk (I guess that these are milk cartons in the back), some bread, cheese, vegetables like pepper and tomatoes, lots of salad,... There is very little fruit, though, just bananas and some citrus fruits. It seems that they spend some money on drinks like beer and wine. They have, however, very little soft drinks. At least I can't make out any soft drinks, can you?
How much money did they spend on this amount of food? Can you guess?
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Say "Ciao" to the Manzo family living in Sicily, Italy. This family of five obviously consumes a lot of bread per week. There is also lots of fruit like bananas, plums and pears. Can you guess what these red fruits are? They look similar to pomegranates, but I'm not sure. It looks like they have a lot of tinned food and some soft drinks in the back. Have you had a look at the shelf behind the family's father? There are some cereals and I think a glass of Nutella. What else can you make out?
Do you think this family spends more money on food than the family from Germany? In theory, they would spend more than the German family as they are five people. We will see...
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Going back west: North Carolina, United States: The Revis family.
All these groceries look so colorful, don't you think? What can you see there? What is different to the preceding families?
For the first time we have McDonalds and Burger King food. They also had pizza delivered. Unfortunately, there seem to be very little vegetables and fruit, except some tomatoes, apples and grapes. What's more is that they have this huge Coke bottle (or whatever that is) in the back. Can you see it? They also have crisps, tinned food, lots of sauces and some meat.
What would you say about their diet? Do you think they spend a lot of money on that kind of food?
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We're taking a trip to a country in Central America: Mexico. The Casales family says ¡Hola!
As you can see, this family of five has a great variety of fruit: bananas, lemons, limes, watermelons, pineapples, oranges... They have very little sweets, but lots of soft drinks instead. Would you say this family has a healthy diet? Why?
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We're now travelling to the western part of South America. These Ecuadoreans seem to have very little food compared to how many people the family consists of. What do you think is in these large white sacks? Do you think all this food will be enough for nine people for one week?
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Aren't you interested in what Asian people tend to eat? And how much money they spend on food weekly? Here's the Ukita family from Japan. Admittedly, there are several foods that I can't recognize. I can, however, see that there is a variety of seafood and very little vegetables and fruit. Can you recognize what all these foods are on the right handside? Do you think the seafood is expensive for them?
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Going from Japan to the western mainland: Mongolia. The Batsuuri family, consisting of four family members, seems to consume very little food in one week. There are plenty of eggs and potatoes and some bread and meat. Do you see any sweets on this photo? Can you guess how much money they spent on this amount of food?
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And this is the Aboubakar family living in Chad. No comment.
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So how much money did they spend?
It's really hard to take a guess, isn't it? You must be curious about the answers on how much money each family spent. So here's the solution:
German family (1): € 375.39 or $500.07
Italian family (2): € 214.36 or $260.11
American family (3): $341.98
Mexian family (4): 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09
Ecuadorean family (5): $31.55
Japanese family (6): 37,699 Yen or $317.25
Mongolian family (7): 41,985.85 togrogs or $40.06
Chadian family (8): $1.23 (!)
I assume you were as shocked as I was when I first saw these photos. How can a family of six people (African family) survive with so little food and water? For me, it's quite hard to imagine to do without all the food that we're used to eat. Do you think you could manage to live with so little food?
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If you found this article both intriguing and shocking, please don't thank me for providing this information and photos to you. Be grateful to the man who came up with the idea and made all these amazing photos.
source of information & photos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/26/102458/137/70/522670/#
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