A stunning photographic collection featuring portraits of people from 30 countries and the food they eat in one day. In this fascinating study of people and their diets, 80 profiles are organized by the total number of calories each person puts away in a day. Featuring a Japanese sumo wrestler, a Massai herdswoman, world-renowned Spanish chef Ferran Adria, an American competitive eater, and more, these compulsively readable personal stories also include demographic particulars, including age, activity level, height, and weight. Essays from Harvard primatologist Richard Wrangham, journalist Michael Pollan, and others discuss the implications of our modern diets for our health and for the planet. This compelling blend of photography and investigative reportage expands our understanding of the complex relationships among individuals, culture, and food.

A young tiger tries to get at poultry parts hidden in a pumpkin at Magdeburg Zoo, Germany on October 30, 2025. The zoo is celebrating Halloween from October 31, 2025 to November 1, 2025. In addition to the puppet theater, children's carousel and children's train, visitors can carve their own pumpkins, which are then distributed to the zoo animals and serve as food. (Photo by Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/Avalon)

A Zimbabwean subsistence farmer holds a stunted maize cob in his field outside Harare, January 20, 2016. About 14 million people face hunger in Southern Africa because of a drought that has been exacerbated by an El Nino weather pattern, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday. In Zimbabwe, 1.5 million people, more than 10 percent of the population, face hunger, WFP said. (Photo by Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters)

A women sell food under the wing of a plane wreckage being used as housing in M'Poko Internally Displaced Persons camp in Bangui, Central African Republic on Saturday, February 13, 2016. The M'Poko IDP camp, just outside the capitol's airport, currently houses close to 20,000 people displaced due to the ongoing conflict in Central African Republic. (Photo by Jane Hahn/The Washington Post)

An opposition supporter wearing a costume lies on the ground in front of riot police during a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government and to commemorate the 59th anniversary of the end of the dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez in Caracas, Venezuela January 23, 2017. The sign reads “Venezuelans starve. There is no food or medicine. The underworld kills us. Get out Maduro”. (Photo by Marco Bello/Reuters)

Men sleep at a 24-hour McDonald's restaurant in Hong Kong, China November 10, 2015. A large number of homeless people sleeping on the street has long been been a problem in Hong Kong mainly due to its high rent and soaring property. In recent years, McDonald's 24-hour fast food shops opening all over the city have become popular alternatives for people, know as McRefugees or McSleepers, to spend the night in a safer and more comfortable way than on the street. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Latefat Alao, 56, a ethnic Yoruba Muslim woman, waits for customers in front of her in Beere market in Ibadan, southwest Nigeria, January 29, 2015. Much of the grain and wheat traders like Alao sell comes from the north and Boko Haram's campaign has negatively affected farmers and food markets. Reuters photographer Akintunde Akinleye photographed Nigerians and asked them about their views on the elections as well as their hopes and concerns for the country. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

In this Thursday, February 19, 2015 photo, participants at a seminar on edible insects taste a Cricket Consomme at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Bangkok, Thailand. A group of chefs and food scientists at the esteemed French school's branch in Bangkok spent the week simmering, sautéing and grilling insects to extract innovative flavors they say could open a new frontier for the world of gastronomy. (Photo by Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo)