Hungry Planet:What The World Eats

by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Alusio

It isn't very often that I pick up non-fiction to read. Other than cookbooks of course. A few weeks ago though, a national magazine brought to light a few excerpts from this book and I had to read the whole thing. I checked it out at the library and literally could not put this book down. It was so incredibly moving and truly amazing.

The premise of Hungry Planet is that families from around the world are photographed with a week's worth of groceries. Included with the photos is a detailed list of what the family eats on average, and how much it costs them. It was very eye opening to see how the rest of the world eats. Most notable were the families from the poor nations- refugees from Chad immediately come to mind. They were photographed with the most meager amount of food, and that was a feat to them. The essays that accompanied talked about daily life as a refugee and the massive amount of work that goes into feeding a family every day.

Equally stunning is the photos of the families in the more developed nations. It's astounding to see how American eating is having an effect the world over in the form of processed food. Nearly every photo in this book contained some form of Coca-Cola. It's incredibly sad to me to see that the more money a country and family has, the more they spend on processed food.

By far my favorite essay in this book is the one on the family from Okinawa. With the longest life expectancy in the world, Okinawa is a culture to pay attention to. They eat very little meat- instead indulging daily in fresh fruits, vegetables, and seafood that comes from the surrounding waters. Okinawans also have a saying- Hara hachi bu, which means "eat only until 80 percent full." What a great philosophy to have, in my opinion. We live in a country full of all-you-can-eat buffets and supersizes, imagine how much more healthy we would be as a country if we ate only until 80% full.

Overall, this book has had me thinking a lot about the food we eat. It makes me embarrassed to throw food in the garbage, when there are so many people worldwide who would be thrilled with my scraps. It's eye-opening, and sometime this fall, I intend to do my own grocery experiments and see what a week's worth of groceries looks like all spread out. I bet it will be embarrassing to myself to see how much food we go through. I highly, highly recommend Hungry Planet, and even though I got my copy from the library, a copy will be making it's way to my bookshelf soon to serve as a reminder to be more conscious of what we eat.