What the world eats (2014) | Hacker News Reader

What the world eats (2014)

nationalgeographic.com

50 pointsoxplot21 comments

I really wish they would have separated sugar and fat into different slices. Grouping them makes them seem equally unhealthy and perpetuates the falsehood that fats are inherently bad. A culture can have a high fat intake, with a low sugar intake and still be healthy. You can't really say the same for the opposite.

Agreed - I'd rather see dairy/eggs merged with meats than fats with sugar.

You can see the original data that they used on the FAOSTAT website[0]. The original data does separate "Sugars& Sweeteners" from "Oilcrops" and "VegetableOils".

[0] http://faostat3.fao.org/faostat-gateway/go/to/download/FB/FB...

You can click/tap on the sugar and fat pie slice to separate out sugar vs fat.

Seems like “fat” in this context just means “vegetable oil”, and animal fat goes into the dairy & eggs category.

Weird grouping.

Given that NatGeo was recently acquired by Murdoch's News Corp, I wonder how "cromulent/approved" these statistics are.

Does it help Big Sugar/Corn that fat is lumped in with sweeteners?

This article is from a year before the acquisition.

I'm surprised that China eats more meat per capita (17%) than most of the rest of the world.

Hong Kong is at the top (29%), followed by Argentina (19%), Vietnam (18%), and then China and Australia, both at 17%.

China's lead even holds up in absolute Calorie terms -- 509 Calories vs 469 in the US. However, interestingly, the Chinese eat less mass of meat per capita than the US. I wonder if that's due to eating more energy-rich parts of animals or if their animals are bred to have more energy-rich meat.

Fat == 9 calories per gram

Protein == 4 calories per gram

So if a culture's fat : protein ratio is higher, then for a given weight of meat there will be more calories consumed. Anecdotally, in China it seems meat-dishes tend to be much fattier than in the US.

For example: https://www.google.com/search?q=hong+shao+rou&tbm=isch

That's pork belly ; AKA the thickest bacon cut imaginable and naturally very fatty (also delicious).

-----

Source: I lived in Shenzhen, China for 4 months.

in China it seems meat-dishes tend to be much fattier

Seems to be a preference thing. At least according to one immigrant Vietnamese family I was close with growing up, muscle is rather bland and boring in texture. They strongly preferred the fat & connective tissue for their flavor & texture respectively, and dishes were always very oily.

As far as I know, Western diets used to be fattier, but out of concern for the diseases of civilization animal fats have been reduced.

I think it is better to compare "grams per person" than "calories per person" in meat consumption. In most East Asian cuisines, whole animal is more preferred than muscle meat. In general, non-muscle meat are fattier and thus contains more calories. For example, bellies and ribs. Also, it will be nice to compare the total number of pigs, cows, poultries consumed. I know it is hard to gather these data.

Seafood should be separated from meat. I wonder if soy products like tofu, tempeh, etc. are included in Vegetables section.

Chinese (and Asians in general) have higher rates of lactose intolerance, which could explain the higher meat consumption. This is likely not the whole story, but it may contribute.

> Chinese (and Asians in general) have higher rates of lactose intolerance, which could explain the higher meat consumption.

As I understand it, the mutation for lactose tolerance is rare outside of those of Northern European descent.

Almost. Lactase persistence is more frequent among people with a cattle history. It's common in certain groups in Africa, notably the Tuareg and Fulani. It must have developed separately multiple times.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactase_persistence#Distributi...

North Korea, Vietnam and India are the ones with over 50% grain consumption (63%, 57%, 57%). Grains here would mean both carbs and protein (pulses). It would be interesting to see the same chart with a carbs and protein split.

protein (pulses)

That's a new term for me -- Wikipedia says it's another name for the English definition of legume: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_(legume)

Do these calorie numbers not seem high? The US eats 3600 calories per person per day (2800 in 1961?), and the vast majority of countries are running well over 2000/3000?

Yeah, they seen high to me. According to typical online weight calculators, a 30 years old, 6 foot high, moderately active male on a long term 3600 calorie/day diet should weigh around 290 pounds. If lightly active, make that 360 pounds. Only an extremely active person should be able to eat that much without being seriously overweight--they would be around 180 pounds.

Nothing changes really that much between 1950 and now, on the world scale.

It would be nice if this would go back further in time, so we could see, for instance, the paleolithic-diet.

According to the chart, nobody eats Animal Fats. I think the paleo community might disagree.

Great infographics.

The Land of Sugar & Fat.

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