Dive Brief:
- The Dutch have the most nutritious, healthy and affordable diet on Earth, according to Oxfam. The Swiss and the French tie for second.
- The U.S. did quite poorly on the study, despite having the greatest amount of cheap food available.
- Americans' poor eating habits, and the resulting obesity plague, pushed the U.S. to 21 on the list.
Dive Insight:
Oxfam's "Good Enough to Eat" index is always fascinating. But it's also always quite predictable.
On one end of the scale, there are those people who suffer tremendously from food deprivation. It's African nations that crowd the bottom of the index, taking 26 of the bottom 30 slots.
On the other end are the Europeans. Reasonable prices, a well-run distribution and retail system, and an abundance of fruits and vegetables inevitably lead to 19 of the top 20 slots going to the nations of Europe (Australia is the other top 20 country.)
Then there is the middle ... the embarrassing, oversized middle that mimics the embarrassing oversized middle of much of the developed world. America is there at 21 -- fat and unhealthy, despite great wealth and an extraordinary production and distribution system. Canada is there too. As are many poor nations where obesity is a problem, i.e., Mexico and Venezuela.
In fact, the most shocking thing about the Oxfam list is that the world is that obesity and diabetes are problems across the vast majority of the top tiers. Thus the world is essentially divided in to two sections: the fat and the starving.
