A few weeks ago, Dave and I had dinner with people from my lab, a going-away party for a co-worker. A visiting prof and his wife joined us, and we had interesting conversations with them during the meal. Mrs. Barker and I discussed food and culture, interests of ours. She and Dr. Barker's mission is to raise awareness of how important good nutrition is for women's health before and during pregnancy and how this affects the future health of their children. In our discussion, she told me about this book "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats," and I was excited to finally get it from the library this week.
Hungry Planet is a beautiful book of photos and essays compiled by a photojournalist. It depicts 30 families in 24 countries in pictures of them in their kitchens/cooking spaces with all of the food that they eat in a week. For each family, there is a break down of what they eat in cost and amount (ex. produce, milk product, meat, etc) and the total food expenditure for the week. For example, a large Peruvian family don't have access to meat or eggs, but they produce enough on their farm to feed 7 kids. A Cuba family supplements their govt rations with goodies from the grocery store. A Chinese family doesn't deny their son the McD's that he wants, even though the grandparents disapprove and have never veered from their traditional food of rice, produce, and meat.
The pictures in this book are amazing. They include pics of the family life, how they acquire their food, and how they live. This book is very informative and fascinating, while it doesn't go out of it's way bash our food choices. It just shows life as it is for people around the world.
Check it out if you are interested~ We might just have to buy this book.
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