Book Review: What I Eat

Thursday, 04 November 2010 12:38

Deny it, fight it or acknowledge it as we might, there’s really no escaping the fact that our lives revolve around what we eat—whether you live to eat or eat to live.

By Maghan McDowell

So calling the fascinating new book, What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets, by Peter Menzel & Faith D’Aluisio, a “book about food” is really just enough to whet your appetite. This book reveals more about the world’s people and cultures than any travel show or encyclopedia we’ve seen.

What I Eat came out this August from Random House’s Ten Speed Press and documents the daily diets of 80 people in 30 countries. It pairs not only beautiful images of a typical days’ food (with descriptions and calorie counts of each), but includes detailed descriptions of each person’s daily routine with additional photos from where they live. The result is a thought-provoking look at (no exaggeration) what makes the world go ‘round.

Rather than being categorized by geographic location, the book is categorized by calorie count, ranging from 800 (in Kenya) to 12,300 (Great Britain). In addition to daily food intake, each profile includes basic stats like age, occupation, height and weight. There’s the American model whose 2,400 calories are “peppered” with fruit, salad and tea, and the Brazilian fisherman whose 5,200-a-day is comprised mainly of crackers and (no surprise here), fish.

If you weren’t quite sure if “you are what you eat” before, you will be after reading this truly mesmerizing book.

Want more? For more images and books by this husband-and-wife team, check out their website, here. To see an example page from the book, read about the high-rise ironworker here.

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