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 plastinated body presented as a pole vaulter is exhibited at the Menschen Museum, Museum of Humans, in Berlin, August 29, 2016. The museum was caught up in a legal dispute with the district office of Berlin-Mitte for years before it was able to meet the requirements made by the court. (Photo by Sophia Kembowski/DPA Photo via Newscom)

A paddler races in a giant pumpkin during the annual regatta on Lake Pisiquid in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Sunday, October 11, 2015. Participants hollow out the massive gourds and pilot them across the 500 meter course. (Photo by Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press via AP Photo)

Cattle keepers from the Dinka tribe perform a traditional dance after a prayer session for peace and good health along the route to Rajaf Payam outside the capital Juba October 18, 2014. (Photo by Jok Solomon/Reuters)

Tanzania, 1964. A touching moment between primatologist and National Geographic grantee Jane Goodall and young chimpanzee Flint at Tanzania's Gombe Stream Reserve. (Photo by Hugo van Lawick via National Geographic)

It is said that Torajans are people who “live to die”. For this Indonesian ethnic group, funerals are such extravagant events that they sometimes attract tourists. Families can postpone burials years (and the deceased are considered sick and hosted at home until the funeral) until the family can raise enough money and gather as many relatives as possible. And then it’s a jubilant multiday social event with a parade, dances and animal sacrifices. Agung Parameswara photographed these funerary practices when he traveled to South Sulawesi province, where the Torajans live. (Photo by Agung Parameswara/The Washington Post)

A demonstrator confronts riot police during a rally in defense of the nationalization of lithium reserves in the country, in Santiago, Chile on January 29, 2018. (Photo by Pablo Sanhueza/Reuters)

A Palestinian man rides a donkey-drawn cart transporting an old car to a scrap yard, in Gaza City on March 15, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters)