The different kinds of foods people eat around the world are endlessly fascinating. We at HuffPost Taste want to know what other countries eat for breakfast when we're shoveling down a bowl of cereal or enjoying our eggs and bacon. We're curious about the way people eat and which customs are taboo, and what people consider "healthy eating." We want to know what kids are eating for lunch and what governments are feeding their soldiers.
Photojournalist Peter Menzel and writer Faith D'Aluisio have satiated our curiosity in a new way, breaking down what individuals from all over the world eat in one day. In "What I Eat: Around The World In 80 Diets," Menzel and D'Aluisio document a stunning array of individuals' daily sustenance. The subjects of 'What I Eat' run the gamut from a coal miner and a call center operator to a sumo wrestler.
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The book is arranged by the number of calories each individual consumes. Context from D'Aluisio accompanies each portrait, and essays from food experts such as Michael Pollan appear throughout the book.
This isn't the first book from husband and wife team Menzel and D'Aluisio. Their James Beard award-winning book "Hungry Planet," came out in 2007 and documented what families from around the world eat over the course of a week.
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On choosing to lay out food consumption at the individual level, Menzel told NPR: "I want people to understand their own diets better — and their own chemistry and their own biology. And make better decisions for themselves."
Below are some examples of the 80 portraits found in "What I Eat: Around The World In 80 Diets."
Bruce Hopkins, Bondi Beach Lifeguard (3,700 kcal)
© Peter Menzel http://www.menzelphoto.com/
"Bruce Hopkins, a Bondi Beach lifeguard, with his typical day's worth of food in Sydney, New South Whales, Australia. The caloric value of his day's worth of food on a typical day in the month of February was 3,700 kcals. He is 35 years of age; 6 feet tall, and 180 pounds. Hopkins eats moderately, rarely -- if ever -- eats fast food, and drinks alcohol only when he and his wife go to dinner with friends."
Marble Moahi, Mother Living with HIV/AIDS (900 kcal)
© Peter Menzel http://www.menzelphoto.com/
"Marble Moahi, a mother living with HIV/AIDS, in the family kitchen in Kabakae Village, Ghanzi, Botswana with her typical day's worth of food and antiretroviral medications. The caloric value of her day's worth of food on a typical day in March was 900 kcals. She is 32 years of age; 5 feet, 5 inches tall; and 92 pounds. Despite a decline in new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa, this region of the world remains the most heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS."
Willie Ishulutak, Inuit Soapstone Carver (4,700 kcal)
© Peter Menzel http://www.menzelphoto.com/
"Willie Ishulutak, an Innuit [sic] soapstone carver in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada with one day's typical food, and drink. (From the book What I Eat, Around the World in 80 Diets.) The caloric value of his day's worth of food on a typical day in the month of October was 4,700 kcals. He is 29 years of age; 5 feet, 9 inches and 143 pounds. Carving is one of the few traditions of the Inuit that has made the leap into the wage-earning modern world. Willie says he can complete two or three pieces in a day, then sell them in the evening at bars and restaurants in Iqaluit for $100 ($93 USD) each, and sometimes more."
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Sitarani Tyaagi, Hindu Priest (1,000 kcal)
© Peter Menzel http://www.menzelphoto.com/
"Sitarani Tyaagi, an ascetic Hindu priest, with his typical day's worth of food at an ashram in Ujjain, India. The caloric value of his typical day's worth of food in the month of April was 1,000 kcals. He is 70 years of age; 5 feet, 6 inches tall; and 103 pounds. Sitarani Tyaagi is one of thousands of ascetic Hindu priests -- called Sadhus -- that walk the country of India and receive food from observant Hindus. Generally, he eats one meal per day and has water for the other two meals. He has a small pot that he carries with him for water. Offer him more food than a plateful, and he will kindly say, 'no thanks.'"
Maria Ermelinda Ayme Sichigalo, Farmer and Mother Of Eight (3,800 kcal)
© Peter Menzel http://www.menzelphoto.com/
"Maria Ermelinda Ayme Sichigalo, a farmer and mother of eight with her typical day's worth of food in her adobe kitchen house in Tingo village, central Andes, Ecuador. The caloric value of her typical day's worth of food in the month of September was 3,800 kcals. She is 37 years of age; 5 feet, 3 inches tall; and 119 pounds. With no tables or chairs, Ermelinda cooks all the family's meals while kneeling over the hearth on the earthen floor, tending an open fire of sticks and straw. Guinea pigs that skitter about looking for scraps or spilled grain will eventually end up on the fire themselves when the family eats them for a holiday treat. Because there is no chimney, the beams and thatch roof are blackened by smoke. Unvented smoke from cooking fires accounts for a high level of respiratory disease and, in one study in rural Ecuador, was accountable for half of infant mortality."
Curtis Newcomer, U.S. Army Soldier (4,000 kcal)
© Peter Menzel http://www.menzelphoto.com/
"Curtis Newcomer, a U.S. Army soldier, with his typical day's worth of food at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin in California's Mojave Desert. The caloric value of his day's worth of food in the month of September was 4,000 kcals. He is 20 years old; 6 feet, 5 inches tall; and 195 pounds. During a two-week stint before his second deployment to Iraq, he spends 12-hour shifts manning the radio communication tent (behind him). He eats his morning and evening meals in a mess hall tent, but his lunch consists of a variety of instant meals in the form of MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat). His least favorite is the cheese and veggie omelet. "Everybody hates that one. It's horrible," he says. A mile behind him, toward the base of the mountains, is Medina Wasl, a fabricated Iraqi village -- one of 13 built for training exercises, with hidden video cameras and microphones linked to the base control center for performance reviews."
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Viahondjera Musutua, Himba Tribeswoman (1,500 kcal)
© Peter Menzel http://www.menzelphoto.com/
"Viahondjera Musutua, a Himba tribeswoman, sits outside the house at her father's village with her youngest son and her typical day's worth of food."
Aivars Radzins, Forester and Beekeeper(3,100 kcals)
© Peter Menzel http://www.menzelphoto.com/
"Aivars Radzins, a forester and beekeeper, wearing his bee-keeping clothes, with a smoker and his typical day's worth of food in his backyard in Vecpiebalga, Latvia."
Mariel Booth, Professional Model and Student at New York University (2,400 kcal)
© Peter Menzel http://www.menzelphoto.com/
"Mariel Booth, a professional model and New York University student, at the Ten Ton Studio in Brooklyn with her typical day's worth of food. The caloric value of her day's worth of food on a day in the month of October was 2,400 kcals. She is 23 years of age; 5 feet, 9.5 inches tall; and 135 pounds. At a healthier weight than when modeling full-time, she feels good but laments that she's making much less money."
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Takeuchi Masato, Professional Sumo Wrestler (3,500 kcal)
© Peter Menzel http://www.menzelphoto.com/
"Takeuchi Masato, a professional sumo wrestler whose ring name is Miyabiyama (meaning "Graceful Mountain"), with his day's worth of food in the team's practice ring in Nagoya, Japan."
Shashi Kanth, AOL Call Center Worker (3,000 kcal)
© Peter Menzel http://www.menzelphoto.com/
"Shashi Kanth, a call center worker, with his day's worth of food in his office at the AOL call center in Bangalore, India. He is 23 years of age; 5 feet, 7 inches; and 123 pounds. Like many of the thousands of call center workers in India, he relies on fast-food meals, candy bars, and coffee to sustain him through the long nights spent talking to Westerners about various technical questions and billing problems. He took a temporary detour into the call center world to pay medical and school bills but finds himself still there after two years, not knowing when or if he will return to his professional studies."
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