Americans eat an average of 3,770 calories daily

Interesting article in the International Herald Tribune today (the paper for Americans living in Europe)about George Bush's speech on May the 2nd where he seemed to blame India for driving food costs up. "During a news conference in Missouri, Bush mentioned India's growing middle class, and said 'when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food, and so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up,'" the paper reported.

Oooh, did that make Indians angry. The problem, they retorted, is that Americans consume 50 percent more calories than a middle-class Indian. The Herald Tribune reported: "Americans eat an average of 3,770 calories per capita a day, the highest amount in the world, according to data from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, compared to 2,440 calories in India. They are also the largest per capita consumers in any major economy of beef, the most energy-intensive common food source, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The United States and Canada top the world in oil consumption per person, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration."

If Americans were to slim down to even the middle-class weight in India, "many hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa would find food on their plates," Pradeep Mehta, the secretary general of CUTS Center for International Trade, Economics and Environment, said. The money Americans spend on liposuction to get rid of their excess fat could be funneled to famine victims instead, he added.

Ouch!