In this photo taken on Sunday, March 10, 2019, a little girl laughs during a ritual marking the upcoming Clean Monday, the beginning of the Great Lent, 40 days ahead of Orthodox Easter, on the hills surrounding the village of Poplaca, in central Romania's Transylvania region. Romanian villagers burn piles of used tires then spin them in the Transylvanian hills in a ritual they believe will ward off evil spirits as they begin a period of 40 days of abstention, when Orthodox Christians cut out meat, fish, eggs, and dairy. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

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.

“Thor Heyerdahl (October 6, 1914, Larvik, Norway – April 18, 2002, Colla Micheri, Italy) was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer with a background in zoology and geography. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed 8,000 km (4,300 miles) by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. All his expeditions are shown in the Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl with a model of the balsa raft “Kon-Tiki” on which he drifted 4,300 miles from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands, proving his theory that Polynesia could originally have been populated by South Americans. (Photo by Express/Express/Getty Images). 1950

A U.S. Army B-24 Liberator Bomber is hailed by a ground crewman as it takes off over a line of shark- nosed fighter planes at an advanced base in China on a mission on October 10, 1943, to bomb Japanese installations. (Photo by AP Photo)

People walk past the Sleepwalker, a sculpture along the High Line in New York, US on May 10, 2016. The hyperrealistic work by Brooklyn artist Tony Matelli is part of the linear park’s Wanderlust exhibition. (Photo by Xinhua/Barcroft Images)

A Poison Ivy and Boba Fet (Star Wars) cosplayer during the MCM Birmingham Comic Con at NEC Arena on March 18, 2017 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Ollie Millington/Getty Images)

Mercedes' British driver Lewis Hamilton celebrates with the trophy on the podium of the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix race at the Hungaroring circuit in Mogyorod near Budapest, Hungary, on July 19, 2020. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Reuters)

A woman takes a selfie with the a cafe-staff dressed in a halloween costume at a cafe in Bangkok on October 23, 2024. (Photo by Manan Vatsyayana/AFP Photo)