What A Week Of Groceries Looks Like Around The World

Groceries: they take up a considerable portion of our disposable income, we often love the ads for them, the packaging calls to us in an enticing voice when we wander about a store, the fruit and veg markets smell, look and feel fantastic, we all consume them (unless we are totally devoted to self-sustainable subsistence farming practices - rare). In short, we can't really live without them!

So, what does a typical week of groceries look like in different, 'average' families around the world?

Take a look at photographer Peter Menzel’s remarkable photographic documentary that gives us a look into the homes, kitchens and bellies of families from around the world.

Some observations:

• If we’re going to talk averages, I think most people reading this would not recognize the Australian family. According to the ABS, the typical Australian family is a couple with two kids living at home, and residing in a capital city. While the chosen family may represent a stereotype of the average Australian household, this bias doesn’t seem to play out in the other photos (the one exception to this might be the Germans, ever organised!)

• While the point of the exercise is to highlight variety, the ubiquity of Coke is a stark reminder of its global pervasiveness.

• Personally, a week or two of a Turkish diet would suit just fine, as would a couple of weeks on a Japanese diet (just in time for our summer bodies to emerge down here in Sydney).

Your thoughts?