2. Ahmed Ahmed Swaid, a qat merchant, sits on
a rooftop in the old Yemeni city of Sanaa with
his typical day’s worth of food. (From the book
What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.) The
caloric value of his typical day's worth of food
in the month of April was 3300 kcals. He is 50
years of age; 5 feet, 7 inches tall; and 148
pounds. Ahmed, who wears a jambiya dagger
as many Yemeni men do, has been a qat dealer
in the old city souk for eight years. Although
qat chewing isn’t as severe a health hazard as
smoking tobacco, it has drastic social,
economic, and environmental consequences.
When chewed, the leaves release a mild
stimulant related to amphetamines. Qat is
chewed several times a week by a large
percentage of the population: 90 percent of
Yemen’s men and 25 percent of its women.
Because growing qat is 10 to 20 times more
profitable than other crops, scarce
groundwater is being depleted to irrigate it, to
the detriment of food crops and agricultural
exports

4. Bob Sorensen, a golf course assistant
superintendent, with his typical day’s worth of
food overlooking the of the twelfth hole tee-
off area at the Golf Club at Redlands Mesa,
Grand Junction, Colorado. (From the book
What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.) The
caloric value of his day's worth of food on a
day in the month of September was 3,600
kcals. He is 25 years old; 5 feet, 11 inches tall;
and 175 pounds. Switching career paths from
criminal justice to turf maintenance enabled
Bob to escape a desk job and work outdoors in
a picturesque Western landscape. Some of his
work is physical, but technology makes his
irrigation chores easier. From one of many rock
outcrops overlooking the lush fairways and
greens in the dry, high desert valley, he can
control a matrix of sprinklers with a single
radio controller. At left: In his backyard garden,
Bob picks vegetables while his dog romps with
a friend.

6. Tersius “Teri” Bezuidenhout, a long-haul
trucker delayed by paperwork at the
Botswana-Namibia border stands next to his
truck with his typical day’s worth of road food.
(From the book What I Eat: Around the World
in 80 Diets.) The caloric value of his day's
worth of food is 8400 kcals. He is 25 years of
age; 5 feet, 2 inches tall; and 191 pounds.
Compared to highways in North America and
Europe, African highways have more dangers
and fewer services. Beyond wildly varying road
conditions, hazards include cattle and wild
animals wandering into the road at will. To
make better time, he eats from cans, boxes,
and jars while he drives—food very different
from the simple porridge and boiled meat he
eats at home with his girlfriend and children.
His girlfriend, who still works at the
slaughterhouse where Teri used to work, is
jealous. She tells him, “You don’t spend this
much money in your own home, but for your
truck you buy so much good food!”

7. Oswaldo Gutierrez, Chief of the PDVSA Oil Platform
GP 19 in Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela with his typical
day's worth of food. (From the book What I Eat:
Around the World in 80 Diets.) The caloric value of
his day's worth of food on a day in December was
6000 kcals. He is 52 years of age; 5 feet, 7 inches tall;
and 220 pounds. Gutierrez works on the platform for
seven days then is off at home for seven days. While
on the platform he jogs on its helipad, practices
karate, lifts weights, and jumps rope to keep fit. His
food for the seven days comes from the platform
cafeteria which, though plagued with cockroaches,
turns out food choices that run from healthful to
greasy-fried. Fresh squeezed orange juice is on the
menu as well and Gutierrez drinks three liters of it a
day himself. His diet changed about ten years ago
when he decided that he'd rather be more fit than
fat like many of his platform colleagues. PDVSA is the
state oil company of Venezuela.

8. John Opris, a wind farm operations manager for enXco, with
265-foot wind turbines and his typical day’s worth of food in
Birds Landing, California. (From the book What I Eat: Around
the World in 80 Diets.) The caloric value of his day's worth of
food in July was 3700 kcals. He is 50 years of age; 5 feet, 10
inches tall; and 180 pounds. Each 265-foot wind turbine
produces enough electricity per year to power 350 average-
size California homes.

10. Carson 'Collard Green' Hughes eating at an all
you can eat seafood buffet in Newport News,
Virginia, in preparation for a contest. He died
at 44 in December 2008.

12. Abdul-Baset Razem, a Palestinian guide and
driver in his extended family's backyard olive
orchard with his day's worth of food in the
Palestinian village of Abu Dis in East Jerusalem.
(From the book What I Eat: Around the World
in 80 Diets.) The caloric value of his typical
day's worth of food on a day in the month of
October was 3000 kcals. He is 40 years of age;
5 feet, 6 inches tall; and 204 pounds. On the
hilltop in the distance, Israel’s 25-foot-high
concrete security barrier cuts off this Abu Dis
neighborhood from Jerusalem, turning a short
trip into the city into an extremely long and
circuitous journey requiring passage through
an Israeli checkpoint on the highway.
Constructed by the Israeli government to cut
down on attacks and suicide bombings, the
highly controversial 436-mile-long barrier was
60 percent complete at the time of this photo.
For the majority of Palestinians, travel to and
from East Jerusalem now requires special
permits from the Israeli government—often
difficult or impossible to obtain.

14. Conrad Tolby, a long-distance truck driver and
ex-biker, with his typical day’s worth of food on
the cab hood of his semi tractor trailer at the
Flying J truck stop in Effingham, Illinois. (From
the book What I Eat: Around the World in 80
Diets.) The caloric value of his typical day's
worth of food in June was 5,400 kcals. He is 54
years of age; 6 feet, 2 inches tall; and 260
pounds. “Those big trucks on the road with all
the lights on them? Those are chicken haulers,”
says Conrad. “I used to be on the road 24-7,
300 days a year, hauling fresh-killed chickens
packed in ice. I’d leave Mississippi and haul a*s
to California. You’ve only got so much time to
deliver or you get fined big time.” After two
heart attacks, both of them in the cab of his
truck, and a divorce back in Mississippi, Conrad
now travels with his best friend and constant
companion, a five-year-old shar pei dog,
named Imperial Fancy Pants, who gets his own
McDonald’s burger and splits the fries with
Conrad.

16. Masako Mizuhashi, a plastic food artist, eats at
home during a lunch break in suburban Tokyo,
Japan, with her typical day's worth of food
(made of plastic) on the table. (From the book
What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.)
Most workdays occasional dance instructor
Masako Mizuhashi, 60, can be found
airbrushing plastic fish in her third floor work
station at the Maiduru Plastic Food company in
suburban Tokyo. Her preference in real food is
for fresh, seasonal foods—fruit in particular—
and she nibbles all day long. Fermented bean
curd is a favorite breakfast dish and she orders
spaghetti vongole when she goes out to eat
with her husband at a local restaurant. All of
the food in the portrait of her with her day's
worth of food is of the plastic variety, with the
exception of the miso soup, the natto, and the
green tea. All of the plastic food shown was
created by Masako Mizuhashi and her
colleagues. Many restaurants in Japan display
plastic food models in front of their shops to
show what kind of food they serve.

17. Saada Haidar, a housewife, with her typical day's worth of
food at her home in the city of Sanaa, Yemen. (From the
book What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.) The caloric
value of her day's worth of food in the month of April was
2700 kcals. She is 27 years of age; 4 feet, 11 inches tall; and
98 pounds. In public, Saada and most Yemeni women cover
themselves for modesty, in accordance with tradition.

18. Joey Chestnut, the world’s most successful competitive
eater, with 66 Nathan’s Famous hot dogs and a gallon of
water at Coney Island, New York City. (From the book What I
Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.) This represents what
Joey ate (and drank) in 12 minutes on July 4, 2007, to claim
the title of world champion hot dog eater. The 66 hot dogs
weighed 14.5 pounds and totaled 19,602 calories.

20. Takeuchi Masato, a professional sumo wrestler whose ring name is
Miyabiyama (meaning “Graceful Mountain”), with his day's worth of
food in the team’s practice ring in Nagoya, Japan. (From the book
What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.) The caloric value of his
typical day's worth of food in June was 3500 kcals. He is 29 years of
age; 6 feet, 2 inches tall; and 400 pounds. Miyabiyama’s stable runs
through a brutal three-hour practice—sweaty, combative, and silent.
Miyabiyama wears the white mawashi (at left) denoting his sekitori
status during practice. His food may not look like much for a 400-
pound man, but it’s enough to maintain his weight and give him
energy for the ring. When he isn’t in intensive training before a match,
he is wined and dined nightly by sponsors. The portrait above is a
composite, taken on two consecutive days: the sumo association
wouldn’t allow Miyabiyama to be photographed during practice.
Miyabiyama (His ring name—Masato Takeuchi is his given name), 29, a
sumo wrestler with the Musashigawa Beya of Tokyo is that stable's
(beya's) premier wrestler and is currently at the sekiwake (junior
champion) level. He is one of the largest of the Japanese sumos and
would probably have moved up even further in the ranks had he not
suffered a severe shoulder injury. He is only just now returning to
matches. Sumos cook and eat chanko nabe—a stew pot of vegetable
and meat or fish at nearly every meal. It is eaten with copious amounts
of rice and numerous side dishes. Miyabiyama eats now to maintain
his weight rather than to gain it, unlike the younger less gargantuan
wrestlers in his stable who are eating a lot to pack on weight. Although
he is wined and dined by the sponsors of his team, during the period
of these photographs he was training for the next matches in Nagoya,
and therefore he wasn't eating out in restaurants nor drinking alcohol.

22. Felipe Adams, a 30-year-old Iraq war veteran,
with his parents and his typical day’s worth of
food at their home in Inglewood, California.
(From the book What I Eat: Around the World
in 80 Diets.) The caloric value of his day's
worth of food on a day in the month of
September was 2100 kcals. He is 30 years of
age; 5 feet 10 inches tall; and 135 pounds.
Adams was paralyzed by a sniper’s bullet while
serving in Baghdad, Iraq. Damaged nerves that
normally enervate a missing or paralyzed body
part can trigger the body’s most basic warning
that something isn’t right: pain. Felipe
experiences these phantom pains, which feel
like stabbing electric shocks, dozens of times a
day; they cause him to grip his leg tightly for a
moment or two until the sensation subsides.

24. Robina Weiser-Linnartz, a master baker and
confectioner with her typical day’s worth of
food in her parent’s bakery in Cologne,
Germany. (From the book What I Eat; Around
the World ion 80 Diets.) The caloric value of
her day's worth of food in March was 3700
kcals. She is 28 years of age; 5 feet, 6 inches
tall; and 144 pounds. She’s wearing her Bread
Queen sash and crown, which she dons
whenever she appears at festivals, trade
shows, and educational events, representing
the baker’s guild of Germany’s greater Cologne
region. At the age of three, she started her
career in her father’s bakery, helping her
parents with simple chores like sorting nuts.
Her career plan is to return to this bakery,
which has been in the family for four
generations, in a few years. She will remodel
the old premises slightly to allow customers
the opportunity to watch the baking process,
but plans to keep the old traditions of her
forebears alive.

26. Atefeh Fotowat, a high school student and
aspiring fashion designer with her typical day’s
worth of food at her home in the city of
Isfahan, Iran. (From the book What I Eat:
Around the World in 80 Diets.) The caloric
value of her typical day's worth of food in
December was 2400 kcals. She is 17 years of
age; 5 feet, 4.5 inches tall; and 121 pounds.
Her father, a renowned miniaturist painter, is
seated on the couch, along with her mother
and her brother, a university student. Together,
they exemplify the educated Iranian upper
middle class in Isfahan, Iran’s third largest city,
famous for art and Islamic architecture.
Atefeh’s relaxed repose and her attire,
combining jeans and headscarf, show her ease
with foreigners yet respect for tradition. She
aspires to turn her fashion designing avocation
into a vocation by becoming a designer after
college.

27. Faith D'Aluisio, journalist and co-author of the book What I
Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets, with her typical day's
worth of food at her home in Napa, California. (From the
book What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.) The caloric
value of her day's worth of food in the month of September
was 1,500 kcals. She is 52 years of age; 5 feet, 8 inches tall;
and 135 pounds.

28. Riccardo Casagrande, a Roman Catholic friar and
gastronome, in the San Marcello al Corso church dining hall
in Rome, Italy, with his typical day’s worth of food. (From the
book What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.) The caloric
value of his typical day's worth of food on a day in July was
4000 kcals. He is 63 years of age; 5 feet, 8.5 inches tall; and
140 pounds. For over 20 years he has overseen the kitchen,
the rooftop garden, and the basement wine cellar for the
friars and priests living in the church complex near Rome’s
Spanish Steps. Between stints saying mass in the beautiful
San Marcello al Corso in Rome, he is in charge of his fellow
brothers' wine cellar, and oversees the cooks. Traditional
Italian food is served family style in the brothers' large
dining room.

30. Akbar Zareh with his typical day’s worth of
food at his bakery in the province of Yazd, Iran.
(From the book What I Eat: Around the World
in 80 Diets.) The caloric value of his typical
day's worth of food in December was 4900
kcals. He is 48 years of age; 5 feet. 3 inches tall;
and 143 pounds. The son of a baker, he began
working full-time at age 10 and regrets that he
didn’t attend school and learn how to read and
write. By working 10 hours a day, every day of
the week, he has sent his four children to
school so they don’t have to toil as hard as he
does. The product of his daily labor is
something to savor—his fresh, hot loaves are
as mouthwatering and tasty as any in the
world. After baking in the tandoor clay ovens,
most of the rounds of fresh bread are dried
and broken into bits and sold as cracker bread.

32. Aivars Radziņš, a forester and beekeeper, with
his typical day’s worth of food in a traditional
Latvian outfit, in his backyard in Vecpiebalga,
Latvia. (From the book What I Eat: Around the
World in 80 Diets.) Last summer at the Latvian
Song and Dance Festival, Aivar's traditional
dress took first prize and he wears it when
selling honey at local festivals and markets.
Since Aivars’s government salary and his wife’s
pay as a rural doctor are both very low in this
former Soviet republic, he used inherited
beehives to create a home business producing
honey to supplement their income. Although
rich in culture and architecture, Latvia is
among the poorest and least populated
members of the European Union; its
population has declined since gaining
independence in 1991

34. Kelvin Lester, a floor supervisor at a meat
processing company with his typical day’s
worth of food at his kitchen table in Grand
Meadow, Minnesota. (From the book What I
Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.) The caloric
value of his typical day's worth of food in June
was 2,600 kcals. He is 44 years of age; 5 feet,
11 inches tall; and 195 pounds. The hands on
the right belong to Kiara, his four-year-old
adopted daughter. Several times a week,
hamburger patties that he purchases with an
employee discount wind up on his dinner
table, and then go into his lunch box, along
with his wife’s homemade potato salad. With
more than 20 years of experience grinding
beef at the Rochester Meat Company, Kelvin
says he always grills hamburgers—no matter
who has ground them—until they are well-
done, because any contamination is most
easily rendered harmless by thorough cooking,
meaning cooking them to an internal
temperature of at least 160 degrees
Fahrenheit.

36. Ted Sikorski, an unemployed resident of the
streets of Manhattan with his typical day’s
worth of food at Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen in
New York. (From the book What I Eat: Around
the World in 80 Diets.) The caloric value of his
typical day's worth of food in June was 2,300
kcals. He 5 feet, 8 inches tall; and 168 pounds.
Although Ted spends many hours a day
walking, he admits to having to watch his
weight, adding that many of his “residentially
challenged” friends have the same problem.
Over 1 million low-income residents use more
than 1,200 nonprofit soup kitchens and food
pantries in New York City. Some of the soup
kitchens offer other benefits, such as showers,
counseling, and entertainment. As in most big
U.S. cities, it’s easier to find a free meal in New
York City than a place to sleep. Each night,
more than 39,000 people sleep in the city’s
municipal shelter system, while thousands
more sleep on the street.

38. Ofer Sabath Beit-Halachmi, a Reform rabbi
wearing a tall (prayer shawl), on the balcony of
his home in Tzur Hadassah with his typical
day’s worth of food. (From the book What I
Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.) The caloric
value of his typical day's worth of food in the
month of October was 3100 Kcals. He is 43
years of age; 6 feet, 1 inch tall and 165 pounds.
Ofer’s town in the Judean Hills about 15
minutes southwest of Jerusalem is a
communal settlement where residents lease
land and houses from the state of Israel for a
99-year period. On Friday evenings Ofer leads
the Shabbat service in a small portable
building that is kindergarten by day and
synagogue at night and on weekends.

39. José Angel Galaviz Carrillo, a rancher of Pima heritage living
in the Sierra Mountains near Maycoba, Sonora, Mexico, with
one day's worth of food. (From the book What I Eat: Around
the World in 80 Diets.) The caloric value of his day's worth of
food in August was 2900 kcals. He is 33 years of age; 5 feet,
8 inches tall; and 167 pounds.

40. Vyacheslav “Slava” Grankovskiy art restorer in
his studio workshop behind his home in
Shlisselburg, near St. Petersburg, Russia, with
his typical day’s worth of food. (From the book
What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.) The
caloric value of his day's worth of food in the
month of October was 3900 kcals. He is 53
years of age; 6 feet, 2 inches tall; and 184
pounds. The son of a Soviet-era collective farm
leader, he was raised near the Black Sea and
originally worked as an artist and engineer.
Over the years, he’s learned a few dozen crafts,
which eventually enabled him to restore a vast
number of objects, build his own house, and
be his own boss. His travel adventures have
included crossing the Karakum Desert in
Turkmenistan, where he spent time with a
blind hermit and dined with a Mongol woman
who hunted bears and treated him to
groundhog soup. His favorite drink: Cognac.
Does he ever drink soda? “No, I use cola in
restoration to remove rust, not to drink,” he
says.

42. What the World Eats By Peter Menzel And Faith D'Aluisio
A stunning photographic collection featuring
portraits of people from 30 countries and the
food they eat in one day. In this fascinating
study of people and their diets, 80 profiles are
organized by the total number of calories each
person puts away in a day. Featuring a
Japanese sumo wrestler, a Massai
herdswoman, world-renowned Spanish chef
Ferran Adria, an American compeTitive eater,
and more, these compulsively readable
personal stories also include demographic
particulars, including age, activity level, height,
and weight. Essays from Harvard primatologist
Richard Wrangham, journalist Michael Pollan,
and others discuss the implications of our
modern diets for our health and for the planet.
This compelling blend of photography and
investigative reportage expands our
understanding of the complex relationships
among individuals, culture, and food