Vegetable consumption per capita in North America (different color scale)
Source:
https://landgeist.com/2021/10/15/vegetable-consumption-in-europe/
https://landgeist.com/2023/10/31/vegetable-consumption-in-north-america/
Is it still healthy when you cook the vegetables in bacon fat, cover them in cheese, deep fry them, then cover them in cheese and bacon again?
Now that I’ve read the article… Um… There is a great lack of source data which leads me to believe they’ve basically added up how many kilos of vegetables a country produces/imports and divided by estimate populous. In other words, with no evidence to the contrary, they’re including vegetables used in manufacturing/production of non food goods. Think of all the corn “consumed” by making biodiesel.
Sure they take the time to include a broken link where they define vegetable, but they need to also define consume. (See the biodiesel example)
Worth noting that potatoes are not included.
Shouldn’t have adjusted the scale for the North American graphic.
Yeah, that’s pretty egregious. It looks like North America is no better than Poland in the first graphic.
In Turkey, tobacco counts as a vegetable.
Very interesting, but I really struggle to believe that the diets of Germany and the Netherlands are that different, having lived in both of them.
You think so? My impression of the Netherlands is that the staple food is fries with mayonnaise, maybe with some broodje kroket in between. In general the diet consists of a lot of butter, white bread and sugar. To me it does not seemt surprising at all that they eat least vegetables in Europe.
This is far from the truth.
Breakfast and lunch usually consist of whole grain bread with cheese or meats. The most common dinner is AVG (boiled potatoes with vegetables and meat), a pasta or a dish with rice.
Sure, fries are the most common street food, but it sure isn’t as bad as you seem to think.
Don’t know about the methodology, but this interestingly contradicts what “health food” culture would have you believe, esp. USA vs. Western Europe, and the relative place of countries like France.
In general, poorer and less connected to global economy means more vegetables? More affluent people people can’t help the convenience of other foods? The other variable would be agriculture, and depth of living in capitalist economy including the older generations (which excludes Eastern Europe). I suspect in some places relatively “silent” and unpublicized demographics, like older people in the east, can skew the stats. I wonder who eats vegetables in the US (disclaimer, never been there) and what comes to mind is poor people outside metropolitan areas.
this interestingly contradicts what “health food” culture would have you believe
How?
That Europeans, specifically those around the Mediterranean Sea, are healthier than Americans because of a greater degree of vegetal nutrition. Like any complex system, there are more factors involved, I’d wager.
Are we counting corn in this? The link to their list of veggies 404s.
Because the numbers for the US would make much more sense. But yes, it’s certainly more complex than that. Not all veggies are created equal, and if the proteins and fats are coming from different sources that’ll be big too.
Corn is not a vegetable though. It’s a grain.
