Stuffed and Starved - Visualizing World Food Consumption
A friend passed along this interesting visualization of the world's calorie consumption. Below is a screen grab showing the U.S. leading the pack in calories consumed. It's interesting to see that the whole western world appears to be eating too many calories while much of Africa is getting too few calories. It reminds me of Raj Patel's appropriately titled book, Stuffed and Starved, which I've got on my reading list for next year.
The veracity of a data on per capita calorie consumption of Americans may be overstated. While the infographic relies on UN data, the USDA has a more conservative estimate in the most recent Dietary Guidelines where they state:
On the basis of national survey data, the average calorie intake among women and men older than age 19 years are estimated to be 1,785 and 2,640 calories per day, respectively. While these estimates do not appear to be excessive, the numbers are difficult to interpret because survey respondents, especially individuals who are overweight or obese, often under report dietary intake. Well-controlled studies suggest that the actual number of calories consumed may be higher than these estimates.
Maybe the reality is somewhere in-between the UN estimate and the USDA survey results.
