What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets

Menzel, Peter and D'Aluisio, Faith. What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.
This companion to What the World Eats was even more fascinating, because it covered what individuals actually ate during the day. Ever wonder what a Chinese acrobat or a Heartland farmer eats? It's all here. The book is arranged from people with the lowest calorie count to the highest, which is a rather fascinating way to set it up. A huge amount of research goes into these books, as information about the countries, the jobs the people do, and the global picture of food consumption all get their due. I especially liked that Menzel and D'Aluisio included what THEY ate on a given day. This is another great book to hand to students who "don't have anything to do" because they get sucked into reading even when all they really want to do is look at pictures!

I was having my own minimarathon of reading yesterday, so thought I would include what I ate, along with pictures of the books I was reading. As in the book, this is not necessarily typical of what I eat every day, but typical of the weekend. During the week, I tend to devolve into things that take little effort, like a handful of M&Ms for breakfast and a can of tuna and an apple for dinner! I am also not a good photographer like Mr. Menzel!







Breakfast: Key Lime low fat yogurt, 1/2 cup disgusting high protein cereal, tea.

Mid-morning snack: Rice cake with 1 tsp peanut butter, tea.

Lunch: Apple, carrots, cheese stick, tomato juice, tea.

Mid-afternoon snack: 10 almonds, 1/4 C dried cranberries, tea.

Dinner: Baked potato topped with broccoli and cheese, sauteed mushrooms and onions, glass of milk, tea.

Calorie total: About 1600. I'm 5'2".

Yes, I really do drink that much tea. I actually had another cup after I took the picture. The first cup of the morning is Barry's Irish tea or PG Tips, and the rest are Tetley's British Blend. I used to drink whatever generic tea was on sale, but when I realized what people paid for coffee, I thought I could move from the penny a cup to the 4-8 cents a cup type!