What A Week Of Groceries Looks Like Around The World
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Anyone stop and think there is a reason Americans tend to choose pre-packaged, processed foods OTHER than they simply do not know any better? Maybe it's the cost of living here. Maybe it's because of the rate of single parent households. Maybe it's the fact that even as a 2 parent household... both parents still maintain 1-2 full time jobs. Canadians have a baby and take the whole year off. Americans have a baby and (speaking from experience) may have to be back at work the very next WEEK! If we were more like other countries in that regard, perhaps we would make the same food choices and be able to prepare more meals from home. Just a thought. It's not always from laziness and over-indulgence.
I don't know what you mean by cost of living. The cost of food is WAY lower in the US than it is in Scandinavia, Germany or France. The cost of living is also a lot lower unless you live in NYC or LA.
I'm from Norway, and our general obesity rate, with the world's most expensive food, is overall 10% against 28,5% in the US. Salaries are higher, but food is still disproportionally expensive.
China has approx the same amount of single households as the US, yet their obesity rate is less than 5%.
I don't think costs or politics are to blame. I'm not sure exactly what causes the obesity i the US, but it's rooted deep into the culture.
If the cause is rooted deep in the culture, I don't know how we got obese in the first place. American obesity rates have been high only since the 1960s.
Well, I don't know what the reason is. Presumably a whole mix of negative aspects about a culture. But blaming finances is too simple, there are many poorer countries with less obesity. I'd love to know exactly what screwed things up, causing millions of people making terrible choices over a long period of time.0 -
Oh wow that's amazing!0
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wow. I wish we ate like other countries0
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Love love love this thread!!! Very educational..to see the difference in cultures and how we have so much and maybe not so much in other nations...we can learn a lot about how much we need vs. How much we have.0
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Thank you very much
Very interesting thread! 0 -
Moral of the story: if you want to be REALLY skinny, go and live in Chad.
Makes me think that - despite the UK's problems with obesity - I'm a very fortunate person to be living here.
It's not like most of us can't buy rice, beans and veg.0 -
Love this thread! 0
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It is scary how little fruit and vegetables there are in the richer countries and the poverty ones. How nutrient healthy are these people?
It would be interesting to see a photo of a vegan/vegetarian family, although there was one photo that looked predominantly vegetarian.
It also show how little people really need to eat.
Also the rich countries have a distinct addiction to processed foods and drink.0 -
Americans have a baby and (speaking from experience) may have to be back at work the very next WEEK!
Whut
With very few exceptions, none of which come to mind at this moment, American women get at most 6 weeks of maternity leave after giving birth. It is really up to the doctor. I've know plenty to give work release after four weeks and teen moms are frequently back in the classroom after two or three. Once the doctor says okay, it is pretty much either return to work or give up your job.0 -
I wish people would get off the "fresh food costs too much" soap box. Americans spend less money on food than any other country. http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/01/america-food-spending-less
There are lots of reasons Americans are fat. Expensive produce is not high on that list.
Seriously. I spend a lot on groceries but no more money than when I used to eat a lot processed foods. If anything, I found buying fresh or frozen veggies is a lot less that boxed items or frozen meals. I spend between $150-200 a week for 2 people BUT I cook and bake... I like really cook and bake from scratch at least 5 nights a week. I tend to buy a lot of fresh spices, expensive olive oils, gluten free products, and I have 2 dogs I refuse to give cheap food and treats so they are around $15-20.00 a week just on their own. Just toiletries and kitchen stuff is expensive too. That usually costs my like $30-50.00 a week...stupid trash bags are like $8.00. sigh. So in all actuality I spend like $100-150.00 on food. To me, thats not that much considering I eat breakfast and lunch at home as well as dinner.
I thought Id share this photo too. haha
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Canada is spot-on
Except that it's a family in Nunavut. I'd bet that the average family there does not eat that way. Everything needs to be flown in, making everything much more expensive.0 -
bump0
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So the French eat cats?
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NOTE! About half of the German beer shown in the picture is alcohol-free hefeweizen, which is marketed as an after-sports isotonic drink.0
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That is really cool. I also noticed that Mexico has a lot more pop than I expected. Maybe part of the reason obese rate is about the same as ours. Tons of fast food in the USA scary to think that, but we are a country of convenience.
Unfortunately here in Mexico soft drinks are way cheaper than bottled water and this has turned Mexico into #1 world wide when it comes to soft drink abuse. Luckily enough up to this point the usually natural diet ( you can see one smallish box of cereal for five people, but lots of fruit and vegetables ) balances the soft drink consumption. We have no frozen or ready-to-prepare food to speak of and the few things there are are very expensive.
But I worry that Mexico will be " americanized " as people become more affluent.0 -
Go Canada! Milk bags FTW!
Haha, I've never seen a milk bag, and I'm born and raised Alberta. I've also never called a hoodie a bunny hug :ohwell: I have tons of friends that are from Ontario, and milk bags are their staple.0 -
What I noticed ; The Japanese eat a lot of processed foods, therefore Japan has a very high rate of stomach cancer. The Indians eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and are mostly vegetarians, how come the ladies look over weight ? The Bhutanese seem to be eating the healthiest, and so little for the size of family that they are, if the number of people in the picture is in correlation to family size.0
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Canada is spot-on
Except that it's a family in Nunavut. I'd bet that the average family there does not eat that way. Everything needs to be flown in, making everything much more expensive.
Actually produce is really expensive in the North so I'm surprised they didn't have more junk. You're right the average family there probably doesn't eat that way. For me, it is a pretty good representation of how my family eats but we're from Ontario.0 -
Nothing like generalizing.
I mean sure, that's a weeks worth for some families. But not all. I don't think my family ever had that much for a full week, and I still got fat. Add in lots of beer.
This. ^^^^ This is not at all what THIS US family eats in a week.0 -
8 bottles of juice for the US family for a one week period!!?!?!?! I think that's the one that shocks me the most. Then again, my kids drink water, both with or without the little Crystal Light powder mixes to put in the bottle.
and now I want a f-ing Mars bar... any Brit out there want to send me some via post?
If you really are sure you want a Mars bar I will send you ONE!! Inbox me....0 -
Thanks for that thread. It is wonderful.0
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The Japanese eat a lot of processed foods, therefore Japan has a very high rate of stomach cancer. .
I believe the running theory is actually that gastritis, a precursor to stomach cancer, is prevalent there due to the salting, pickling, and smoking techniques used pretty frequently in Japan and Korea (where stomach cancer rates are also very high). If it were related to packaged or processed foods, you'd see much higher rates in the U.S. But you don't. I think the U.S. rate is like ten times less than Japan.The Indians eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and are mostly vegetarians, how come the ladies look over weight ?
It doesn't just matter what you eat, it matters how you eat it. Indian cooking, depending on the region, can involve a lot of fat (ghee, cream, etc), a lot of deep frying, a lot of bread (fried or grilled), a lot of rice, etc. Not to mention that weight is culturally different in India, when compared to the US. In America, the poor tend to be more overweight than the affluent. In India, it's the opposite -- wealthy and middle class people tend to have higher rates of obesity. My friend's Indian grandmother is a feeder; she is always making sure no one goes hungry. And she doesn't really take no for an answer. She considers fat babies or chubby kids to be healthy kids.0 -
Go Canada! Milk bags FTW!
Haha, I've never seen a milk bag, and I'm born and raised Alberta. I've also never called a hoodie a bunny hug :ohwell: I have tons of friends that are from Ontario, and milk bags are their staple.
Never heard of a bunny hug! I'm from Ontario and I definitely grew up with milk in bags. The phrase "take a bag of milk out of the freezer" was heard very often in my house. I mean, if it's not in a bag, how else do you freeze it? (Aside from the fact that freezing milk is probably exceedingly odd too...)0 -
This series of photographs reminds me of the book "Material World". In that book, families from around the world are pictured outside their dwellings with the entire contents of their houses spread out in front of the home. I wonder if these photos were put out by the same author or publisher?
These photographic representations really make an impact. Sometimes it is hard for people to imagine volumes in their minds eyes, so graphic illustrations are really helpful.
I keep thinking of Oprah Winfrey and her fat wagon.0 -
I have done this challenge for the past two years -
https://www.livebelowtheline.com/us
The challenge is to eat for 1.50 a day for 5 days to see what it's like to live below the poverty line. Total eye opener.
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This is such a great book, and the authors have another very interesting book profiling women around the world. There is also a cookbook sold through 10,000 villages with recipes from these families.0
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very interesting 0
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