What the World Eats

Reader’s Review

This is a valuable book which will fascinate and educate children as well as adults. Photographer Peter Menzel visits 21 countries around the world and photographs an entire week worth of food that an average family eats. Each family is introduced and general information about them and their country is provided through writing and photographs. The book covers a wide variety of themes including but not limited to hunger, poverty, obesity, fast food and meat consumption. There are so many lessons that can be drawn from the photographs, but the two that shine through are the incredible contrast between the diets of varying economic groups, as well as the spectacular cultural diversity created by God among human beings.

To look out for 

• Islamic Values: Foods from cultures around the world are highlighted, including meats such as pork, occasional pictures of alcohol, and street food that on one page include pig intestines and roasted guinea pig. On another page a market prominently displays pigs heads.
• Violence: A boy eats a fish raw, a family is described that hunts a bear walrus, ox, narwhals and seals.