I saw these when first published on paper, but your group includes some that I have not seen before.

I am so moved by these photos. There is so much joy and warmth on love on the faces of these families surrounded by the nourishment that keeps them alive and together. I would hope that my husband and I would also glow with gratitude if we went through this exercise.

I admit that we would have as much beer in our photo as the German family. It would be American craft beer, though. Does that make it less onerous?

Jamies
You're right, part of my interest in those pictures is seeing the families and their pets and their spaces.

Be joyful about your beer, especially if it's craft beer!

I don't want this to be about judging other people's nutritional choices or poverty vs. wealth. It's just a little peek into how others live, which is always fascinating to me.

Great post, thank you for sharing hhireno. I think ours would be an amalgam of several, we don't eat much processed food and don't drink soda, but there would definitely be beer and wine in the mix for us, along with bread, meat, veggies, fruit and dark chocolate. We are lucky that mr. sandyponder is a SAHD, and a great cook, so we have a from scratch meal almost every night and that way avoid stuff like frozen pizza and jarred spaghetti sauce.

Fascinating and very telling, thanks again for posting.

sandyponder

I've seen that before-it's telling!

Our house would be divided by what I buy and what DH buys. I stick to fresh fruit & greens, but use frozen veggies. Whole grain bread, olive oil, chicken, hummous, tofu, and flavored coffee. I AM stuck on caffiene free Diet Pepsi-so that is always in my house, but I'm learning to swtich to more water-down to only one 12 oz can of DP per day now! DH throws in jelly, peanut butter, ice cream, pork rinds and ice tea.

I do tend to keep processed (jar pasta sauce, bottled salad dressing) because I just don't have time to make those things. I'm lucky to get dinner on the table most nights! I also keep WW frozen meals-mostly for lunch-but on the occasional night when I just cannot cook. Trying to eat more natural however. No sweets or chips-much to DH's chagrine.

I love this post:). I will admit to some package snacks in my bag for my six year old's special treats. But we have mostly fresh foods and I generally follow a three ingredient rule on my snack purchaces( Potato chips I buy but not cheez-its, because potato chips have only three natural ingredients:). As the SAHP I cook from scratch every breakfast and dinner for my family. Right now I am trying to prepare more ethnic dishes and have been practicing making tikka masala, biryanis and coconut curries so I have alot of new spices, coconut milk and yogurts in my bag plus the regular staples:)
A new addition to my bag as of late is nuts:). My daughter was born with multiple food allergies and she has just out grown her last one, peanuts so I now have been using them again and am happy to no longer have any food fears:).

I love the pics of Mexico and India with all the colourful fruits and vegetables. And then there are the pics of Britain and the US with all the junk food and Canada isn't much better.

We would trend more to Mexico and India with all the fruits and vegetables and I also cook from scratch with very little processed foods in our cupboards.

I feel like I have a part-time job grocery shopping...have already been twice this week and tomorrow will be going again because we have 14 people coming for dinner. We have a family of five and four of them are adult sized (I have 17 and 21 yo sons) and the small one (age 12) does gymnastics 15 hours a week so she eats a ton, too!

Anyway, our pile 'o food would be large. In it, you'd find 1% milk, both regular and lactose free; no juice or soda; maybe beer or wine (we always have it in the house, but I don't buy it every week); lots of bananas plus other fruit; fresh and frozen veggies; maybe some red meat but usually not; chicken, maybe chicken sausage, sometimes fish; pasta and (ssh) jarred sauce that I usually doctor up with veggies or meat; Chobani yogurt for DH and me, other yogurt for kids; Edy's Popsicles; a lot of "bars" (Nutrigrain bars, granola bars); crackers; cheese; sometimes cookies but not every week; whole grain breads and maybe bagels or English muffins; cereal; eggs and/or egg whites. I never buy potato chips but I will buy tortilla chips. I bought Cheezits this week because they were on sale! Certain things I never buy unless it's for a special occasion: potato chips, Doritos, etc., candy, soda. Not only because I don't want my kids eating too much junk, but also because I'm always on a diet (or so it seems) and I have no willpower. I love candy. Oh, and I buy turkey, ham, cheese, etc. for oldest DS to pack for lunch for work.

Try to avoid most packaged meal type things but I often have a stash for "emergencies" -- we have frozen pizzas and other frozen Trader Joe's things in the basement freezer. Also the "lean" Hot Pockets which I think are gross but my kids love them. (Right, no chips but sure, have a Hot Pocket.)

Milk, eggs, cheese, butter, fresh veggies, frozen or canned green beans. Salad ingredients always on hand. Fresh fruit weekly plus some pre-packaged that hubby likes to take in his lunch. Potatoes, whole wheat pasta and tortillas, brown rice, whole grain bread and cereal. We do keep some crackers/chips/bars, etc. but try for healthy choices. Also occasionally sweets.

I make most of our pasta sauces, etc. usually make a bunch and freeze when tomatoes come in. We do not use much prepackaged/processed food.

Chicken, lean pork, lean beef - but limited. Almost always have lean sliced ham and turkey on hand for sandwiches/wraps.

We do usually have soda on hand. My husband still drinks the occasional coke and I love Mt. Dew - yes, I'm ashamed to admit my guilty pleasure. When I do buy it - I buy one small bottle so I can limit myself as to how much I drink. Hubby must also have his orange juice - but we use one with reduced sugar - or fresh if we go to a particular gourmet market - but that is not a weekly stop.

Interesting thread!

tina

The Mexican family consumes 12 large bottles of Coca-Cola, plus there are more bottles/cans to the right of the photo. Maybe I could understand if the kids were teenagers, but they aren't. That is a lot of soda.

It seems like an awful lot of food for one week in a lot of those pictures.

Is that really typical of the American diet? It makes me ill just looking at it. A couple of tomatoes and some grapes. The rest looks like junk not food.

That's an enormous amount of meat and eggs in Australia. Hard for me to fathom. GB looks very uninteresting and unappealing. As does Germany and Japan but I love Asian food.

It is kind of hard to see what's there but seeing all the packaged foods makes me cringe.

I think this will make me more aware, or beware, of what I come home with, lol.

Yes, the amount of soda is pretty scary.

We really enjoyed that post!

It reminds me of ths one:

Here is a link that might be useful: Kids around the world with their favorite toys

Kiki, thanks for that link. I sent it to my sister with small kids for them to see. I bet by the weekend I'll be getting a picture of my niece and nephew with their favorites.

Kiki - I think you should create a new thread for Kids around the world with their favorite toys. I LOVED studying those pictures!

That was wonderful!

With our family, it depends on the week/time in our lives. Recently, my husband had foot surgery, we were recovering from several of my kids having a bad virus that lasted a month (kids got it staggered), and our basement flooded. So, I had a lot of processed foods in my cart, for sure. Same happens when we have any sort of big commotion, like a new baby.

During calmer times, you'd find Pepsi (DH drinks it-- it makes my mouth hurt), dairy products (inc heavy cream-- I always try to find an excuse to use it), some meat (for everyone but me since I'm the lone vegetarian), bread products (whole wheat and white), and a lot of fruits and veggies. And pizza, though sometimes I do make my own. I also try buy interesting food for myself (like Indian entrees) for nights when the main dish is a meat one and I'm out of time to make one from scratch for myself.

I don't buy too many sweets, but only because I like to bake my own. Except for brownie mix. Nothing I make from scratch can ever duplicate the deliciousness and ease of brownie mix.

My DH and kids really like chips, so we usually have a bag or two per week.

I know you don't want to talk about poverty, but when my DD looked at the pics, the first thing she noticed was how some of the families survived on so little. We 'joked' about how lucky they were not to have so many dishes to do like we do, how they have no obesity issues, don't struggle to be motivated to exercise (since they probably have to carry water for miles), and all that. It also made me decide to sponsor another child via Save the Children. It's a great organization, and they work worldwide, inc. the USA.

PS-- thank you, Kiki, for that link. So interesting! I will be showing my kids that one, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Save the Children

This post was edited by anele on Thu, May 2, 13 at 22:52

A large variety of mostly organic vegetables and fruits. Nuts, olive oil, almond butter, almond milk, organic 0% fat milk and Greek yogurt. Home made muesli. Organic eggs from free roaming chickens, cruelty free chicken and wild fish according to season, including cod, halibut, salmon, shrimp, haddock and tuna. Home made whole grain bread. A large variety of whole spices and dried and fresh herbs. Tea, coffee, the odd bottle of wine and beer. Chocolate. No sodas, almost no processed food of any description, never any fast food, ever! Almost never any red meat. Made from scratch meals every day, home made baked goods (apart from bread and pizza) less often these days.
I am from England, have lived in the USA for 20 years, but our picture would probably look more like India but with the addition of the foregrounds of Mexico, Italy, and Turkey! We truly appreciate the wonderful variety of our food and that it is so plentiful.

Yum! Now that is good healthy food! It sounds like you really enjoy the whole process of eating healthy.

What do you think of the layout of Britain? Is it representative of how you know typical eating over there? It looks totally uninspiring (and unhealthy) to me. Like they are really not into food, so to speak.

This post was edited by snookums2 on Fri, May 3, 13 at 6:05

Why do the Germans look so cranky?

This reminds me of the emails that I get from the grocery store. My "personalized weekly specials" this week are ken's salad dressing, hummus, bagged salad, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, coffee, cream cheese (DH and DD eat many bagels),strawberries, fruit bars and salsa.

Our at home meals are pretty healthy but we do dine out often. I eat pretty well but DD will always order buffalo chicken, sweet tea, salad and fries which makes me cringe. Thankfully she swims 12 hours per week,

DD's friends do tease her about her healthy school lunches. Last week I bought some 100 calorie baked cheetos for her lunch. During her school lunch one of her friends grabbed her phone and texted me - "Do you know that Katie is eating cheetos?",

This post was edited by deee on Fri, May 3, 13 at 6:19

Snookums, the Britain picture looks nothing like the food we used to eat there. It doesn't represent the food of any of my family or friends either. I am sure there must be some people live who that way but I don't know any British people who do. However obesity is on the increase in Britain too, fast food and processed food are no doubt playing their part.

I will run the photos by some of my British family and friends for their comments.

Fascinating look at life around the world... I was as interested in the backgrounds and decor as much as the food...and can't help but notice the size of the people as well as the calorie count of the food.

I was esp interested to see what the Italian, French and Polish families were eating...interesting that the French were displaying what looked like meals, though I couldn't tell if they prepared them themselves or bought them out.

I was also interested to see how much of the food came with brand names, whether I recognized them or not, vs. what came without brand names like grains and fruits.

The volume of food per person was also an interesting comparison...just look at Turkey vs. Mali. Amazing.

I esp enjoyed the "extras" in the pictures though, esp the big stuffed elephant in Poland. Also interesting to see if there was a tv in the picture and if the tv was on.

Along the lines of the kids and their favorite toys link, I just sent a picture to my niece and nephew with a few of my favorite things. I included my bike, my sneakers, books, my iPad (actually the box since I was using the iPad to take the picture), the web camera I use with my laptop when I Skype them, and my car.

So interesting! Thanks for that link. I'm just glad I don't live in Mali or Chad. I also found the homes, backgrounds, and extended families interesting.

The Canadian diet shown is nothing like mine. I eat a super-healthy mostly organic diet for health reasons as recommended by my Naturopath which is heavy on veggies and light on red meat and diary. No sugar, white flour, boxed cereals, milk, pop (sodas), prepared foods at all. I do occasionally eat out in restaurants with friends/family and when I travel but try for 80% healthy and 20% not so much. I drink wine or beer occasionally. I buy pizza from a local place that makes good ones once or twice a year when the Grands visit as they like that.

I don't feel I have to reform the world but am amazed at the lack of knowledge by many of how food impacts health. Guess it's the old "it's never going to happen to me" syndrome but since it did happen to me I cannot ignore how I eat since I want to be healthy and live a long life.

The big bonus to my way of eating has been that I no longer have any problems with weight, in fact I sometimes have to eat extra calories as I can lose weight easily. Veggies have few calories. I add more butter, heavy cream, extra olive oil, nuts, and 70% chocolate sweetened with stevia for calories.

I checked that book out of my library some time ago and it was fascinating to not only see the pictures but read the specifics about the families.
I purchase food for just the two of us and a great deal of it is divided His & Hers!!! I am so sick of cooking and eating the same things because my DH has a far more limited palate and is a calorie burning machine. Between his work, which is often very physical and his workouts, he needs almost constant fuel through the day. I practically gain weight WATCHING him eat.

His: cottage cheese, sharp cheddar, low sodium crackers, sliced turkey, eggs, english muffins, peanut butter & jelly on sandwich thins, any meat red white or otherwise, some fish but generally limited to tilapia and salmon (and no seafood unless shrimp, fried or cocktail), bananas (constantly), granola type cereals for snacks if they are low sugar (he dislikes too much salt or sweet), some bars but generally they are too sweet , salad but EXTREMELY limited content, only iceberg and red pepper with homemade ranch dressing, broccoli, cauli, greenbeans, and a few others. Oh, and potatoes. And did I mention he LOVES frozen pizza cooked outdoors in his pizza oven? And he likes me to purchase or bake cookies for him ((that's his sweet downfall) but ration them - put 2 at a time for him to find in the freezer :-/ which means I hide them from him, anticipate his sweet tooth and not indulge myself! He calls me the cookie fairy and wonders out loud if the cookie fairy will be making a stop soon. Save me.

Me: any fruit, any vegetable, any fish, any seafood, any meat, 'interesting' cheeses (not cheddar not cottage), nuts, salads with anything in them.

We never drink soda, some wine for me, no juice for me but he likes it. Coffee for me not him. and lots of water for both. I eat like my girlfriends - we want to form a female food co-op. The husbands can figure it out for themselves!

Luckygal, do you find you feel 1000% better? Aches, pains gone. High energy. Health problems even reversed as they claim!?

Kiki, loved the children with their toys. Some were really touching, like the first little boy with a monkey and the little Italian farm girl with her plastic rake and shove. As for little Pavel, well, what can I say? Hope he gets it out of his system. I love the way they kids were posed and the toys layed out. Really sweet.

Snookums, IMO it would not be possible to quantify the improvement in one's health on a percentage basis! :) However, at age 71 I have enough energy to do what I want and am not debilitated by discomfort. There are some disease conditions that are unlikely to be 'reversed' at my age. If I had known 30 years ago what I now know some of these may never have occurred. Since I don't feel the internet is the place to 'tell all' I'll only say that I am very pleased with my good health and happy to be alive after what I've been through. I will say that a very serious medical diagnosis has been reversed and I believe it's because of the Naturopathic treatments and changes I made in my lifestyle. The choices I made were against what my Medical Doctors advised but I felt were the best for me. My Medical Doctor recently told me how healthy I look which is certainly nice of her to say but I like to go more by lab tests and mine are all excellent.

I had 4 relatives and friends die young within only a few years so was motivated to be pro-active with my health. Previously I thought my diet was quite healthy altho in retrospect it was not. I also could not loose weight beyond a certain point which was not a healthy state.

No rational person would expect their vehicle to run well on crude oil, we use refined fuel in our vehicles, don't we? However, many people think they can put junk food in their bodies and expect health. The human body isn't made to run well on junk food. We live in a chemically polluted 'sick' society and too many people think their Medical Doctor will cure anything that goes wrong by prescribing pharmaceuticals. IMO it's necessary to become educated and take responsibility for one's health. That's what I'm doing with the healthy food I eat, the natural supplements I take, with meditation, attitude, and with other methods recommended by my Naturopath. I do not rely on pharmaceutics for health. It's working well for me.

This post was edited by luckygal on Sun, May 5, 13 at 8:47

Glad you enjoyed the kids' toys link, I had several interesting discussions with my daughter after the toy and the what families eat pictures!

Thanks for posting on that Luckygal. It's good to hear first hand. I'm glad you mentioned Naturopathy. I have been wondering how to go about looking for a New Age holistic type physician. I think our "medicine" has its place but don't believe pharmaceuticals is the answer to everything, which seems to be pretty much what our medical system revolves around. So going to the doctor for something doesn't make a lot of sense to me anymore since I don't subscribe.

Glad to hear you are feeling so well and your condition has reversed! I totally agree that we try to fuel our bodies with junk and it makes no sense. We're lucky there are doctors around who are educating people to stop, look and think about what they eat if they want to feel better. "You are what you eat" does go way back but we seem to have lost sight of it. Even shopping at some of the healthier markets, the amount of unhealthy food there enticing us is pretty bad, imo.

P.S. Surprise, surprise. Insurance coverage looks to be a problem.

This post was edited by snookums2 on Mon, May 6, 13 at 22:52