International Contrasts in Food Consumption

T HE broad fact that variety rather than uniformity is characteristic of food consumption throughout the world is familiar and indisputable. Differences are found in the dishes consumed from country to country, region to region, locality to locality, even family to family. Within a country or region, these differences appear also from one epoch to another. They are so prevalent and conspicuous, in fact, that it seems almost hopeless to discover, in the international sphere, some way of characterizing summarily the diets of different nations and contrasting them one with the other. This paper presents a comparison of national diets in the world at large, on a basis that seems significant, though it is not the only one possible. More precisely, it presents estimates of the ratios of food calories derived from the cereals and potatoes to all the food calories that disappear in the various nations of the world, typically in the five-year period ending July, 1938. With the changes in the ratios, and in national boundaries, that are being brought about by the present war, we are not here concerned. The general results are summarized in the map on page 366.