What Ordinary People Eat Around the World (21 Photos by Peter Menzel)

Peter Menzel had one of the coolest ideas ever – traveling the world to see what ordinary people eat and take lots of pictures! That’s how many of his photographs ended up in a book titled “What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets”. It’s very fascinating, for me personally, to see what people around the globe eat daily, and how their meals compare to mine. And trust me, it’s not all pizza and mac’n’cheese! Peter documented eating habits of people of various professions, cultures, customs and living standards across the world. So now, let’s check out a handful of the most interesting models from his book. Just for a reference, an average adult should eat around 2000 kcal every day.

Saleh Abdul Fadlallah, a camel broker from Cairo, Egypt. His daily intake is 3200 calories, and, honestly those calories look delicious.

Robina Weiser-Linnartz, a master baker from Cologne, Germany. Clocks out at about 3700 calories a day. If it was me, I’d eat all of those sweet buns. Just saying, the girl’s got some strong will.

Conrad Tolby, American long-distance truck driver. 5400 calories a day. It’s weird, because I never thought that smokes would factor into that number, but yes, he basically lives off of that sugar high every day.

Jill McTighe, a classroom assistant from London, UK. 12300 daily calories, but if you look closer, you can see she’s just trying to win that iPod Classic.

Saada Haidar (left), a housewife from Sanaa, Yemen. 2700 calories a day and something tells me it’s for her entire family.
The head monk of a Tibetan monastery (right) , 4900 calories a day. Almost 3 times the daily norm, and it’s just rice and water?

Takeshi Masato, a Sumo wrestler from Nagoya, Japan. 3500 calories a day. I mean, it looks like it’s even less than what the monk is having. I’m so confused right now.