A Worldwide Day's Worth of Food

What I Eat Around the World in 80 Diets
© Peter Menzel / What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets

Iran, The Baker
Name: Akbar Zareh
Age: 48; Height: 5' 3"; Weight: 143 pounds
Caloric value of food this day: 4900 calories

BREAKFAST: Hard-boiled eggs (2), 4.2 oz. Sabzi khordan (fresh herb mix) with radishes, 3.2 oz. Nan-e taftoon (light, crusty flat bread), 10 oz. Black tea, 8.5 fl. oz., with sugar, 2 tsp.

SNACKS THROUGH THE DAY, GRABBED AS HE WORKS: Khoshk yazdi (flat cracker bread, the type he bakes to sell, eaten fresh), 1.5 lb. Tomatoes, 5.3 oz.; Grapes, 13.8 oz. Pomegranate, from the tree outside his bakery, 15.3 oz.

DINNER: Kabab koobideh (lamb kebab), 5.2 oz. White rice, 14 oz. Yogurt, 10.6 oz. Nan-e taftoon, 10 oz.

LATE EVENING: Whole milk, hot, 6.8 fl. oz.

THROUGHOUT THE DAY: Boiled water, 3.2 qt.

Working alone in his small bakery, Akbar Zareh is a perpetual motion machine throughout the day, seven days a week, fueling himself with his own flat bread and quick snacks of vegetables and fruit.