Just found THIS Time photo essay about the way different families from around the World eat.

The essay show whats on the family dinner tables from fifteen families from around the World.

The difference in weekly cost between family 3 and family 15 is a bit startling.

Do you think the UK family who are number 13 are typical? Except for a few vegetables where is their actual food? All I can see is ready cooked and packet stuff and rather a lot of cake/biscuits/sweets?? £155 seems an awful lot of money for not very much real food.

How about you - which family are you more like?

I think my food is more like numbers 6 and 9 - the proportion of veg seems about right.

I think the UK family is pretty typical.
I found it really interesting to see the difference from families all over the world, it is quite an eye-opener.

Amazing. The pic from Chad was heart-breaking. The folks from Ecuador looked "poor" but their food looked healthy, and they had more of it.

The Brits looked like they have too much processed food and junk. And the Japanese family had an awful lot of packaged stuff too.

I liked the look of the Egyptian family's food.

Very interesting!! Also, i thought it was pretty interesting that the families that had lots of fresh fruits and veggies had the lower expenditure per week, than the families that ate lots of processed stuff. No more excuses about fresh foods being too expensive i think!!

Thank you for sharing that Sarah Ann, helps put things into perspective a little!

If you take out the meats, dairy products, eggs and sodas, I shop (and eat) like a combination of these families:

Number 6 Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca, Number 9 Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo, Number 10 Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo, Number 14 Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village.

It is sad how so many people (especially American, British, German and Japanese) rely so heavily on packaged items.

Hey,
Yup we're deffo number 9! Also we're from an "arab family" and so it seems wherever we go we take the way we eat with us lol. So yeah, a lot of meat but A LOT of vegetables with the meat as well.
It was so interesting to see though... some of them were shocking, especially I think the mexican family with SOOO MANY BOTTLES OF COLA I was so shocked... if they just cut them out they would all lose a fair amount of weight.

Thank you so much for sharing it with us!!

Coca Cola is THE iconic presence in Mexico;It's almost a "national treasure". I'd bet it is in EVERY home! (It is in every home in Mexico I have been to!). The advertisements are EVERYWHERE and moms even put it in baby bottles for their children!

OH my days... that is disgusting. Why would they do that? Baby's teeth start rotting drinking milk and water.... what is happening to them drinking cola? I bet the Cola company keeps the health risks pretty hidden over there...

I found this very interesting. Even in the pictures with families who had very little, the looked happy. Thank you for the post, I will show it to my children.

I saw Coke and other soft drinks in many of the photos. I love the German one all set out in very neat rows - including a fair amount of beer! I was appalled at the one US family with so much soda, chips and pizza! Mine doesn't resemble that at all!

Yeah, the only unpackaged things that family has is a couple of measly fruits

Agreed

**** I dunno how those pesky vegetables found their way into the UK family's diet! I agree with another poster, I thought the Egyptian one looked good. I liked the way the cat and dog food had a place on the table alongside the human food for us Brits - sez it all really!

Actually, thinking about it, the Brit family are in a 70's timewarp - avocado, prawns, mayo, chocolate cake, cream