Hungry Planet - Kuwait

The Al Haggan family (and 2 servants from Nepal, on the left) living in Kuwait City, Kuwait, and their one week's worth of food (from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio).

Their PICTURE is here.

This family eats (7.8 kg of food per person, per week):

• 21% starches (bread, potatoes, flour, chips, pasta, etc.)
•   6% sweet foods (sugar, syrup, biscuits, chocolate bars, etc.)
•   6% dairy (yoghurt, cream , cheese, etc.)
• 22% meat, fish, eggs 
• 19% fruits 
• 26% vegetables (carrots, cucumber, onion, lettuce, etc.)

Beverages (2 litres per person, per week):

• 50% yoghurt to drink
• 50% juices (no alcohol and soft drinks are consumed)

A small insight into their life:

"The oldest Al Haggan children, Hamad and Fatema, eat their usual breakfast of salty olives, tomatoes, cucumber, eggs, feta, Laughing Cow and Kraft cheeses, and fresh, chewy Iranian flat bread, then take the house elevator to their bedrooms in the upper reaches of their newly built home in Kuwait City."

They have two Nepali servants, they are the only ones to use the staircase.

Facts about Kuwait (from the book):

"Because of it's vast oil wealth, Kuwait can and does subsidize nearly every part of it's people's lives - employment, health, education, housing - and even some grocery stores. The government provides a job to virtually every Kuwaiti citizen, women included."

• Urban population: 96%
• Citizens that are eligible to vote: 10%
• Land that is barren desert: 91%
• Water supply that is desalinated sea water: 90%
• Food imported: 98%
• Oil exported: 96%
• Overweight population: male 70%, female 77%
• Obese population: male 30%, female 48%

This is an interesting article about sugar consumption in Kuwait: 

100,000 tons of sugar for Kuwait’s Ramadan desserts

"Kuwait, a small country with an estimated population of 3.5 million, one of the world’s largest consumers of sugar. To make it easier to understand how large this amount is: 100 thousand tons of sugar are enough to sweeten six billion glasses of juice. This means that the amount of sugar used to make sweets during Ramadan in Kuwait is enough to sweeten juice for nearly the entire population of the world."

According to Wikipedia:

"The number of women who are either overweight or obese has jumped to 80% in 2010."

"15% of the adult population has diabetes, with 50% of adults over 45 living with the disease. 22 of every 100 children have developed diabetes as a result of an unhealthy weight."