What the World Eats

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Sitting down to a daily family meal has long been a tradition for billions, but this age-old custom is rapidly changing. Increased trade and the rise of global food corporations like Kraft and Nestlé are significantly impacting eating habits worldwide. Supermarkets now stock a variety of international foods, while American fast food chains like McDonald’s and KFC are ubiquitous. For the first time in history, more people are overfed than underfed, leading to a stark contrast where some struggle to find enough food while others face health issues from overeating. To explore these changes, authors Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio visited families globally, observing and photographing their meals over a week. They accompanied parents shopping at mega grocery stores and outdoor markets, participated in communal feasts, and watched mothers prepare dinner in kitchens and over open fires. They shared meals with twenty-five families across twenty-one countries, experiencing about 525 meals featuring a diverse array of foods—from hunted seal and spit-roasted guinea pig to U.N.-rationed grains and Coca-Cola. Through these interactions, they gained insights into global food consumption and its implications, revealing cultural similarities and differences reflected in dinner plates around the world.