Let's see what Mongolians eat

Country: Mongolia
Family: The Batsuuri family of Ulaanbaatar

Expenditure: $40.02

     The Batssuri family, two parents of mid-40s and two teenage children, is a moderate-sized family in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The weekly food expenditure of this family of 4 is only $40.02. That comes to an average of about $1.4 per person per day. But the picture indicates that the family has decent choices and diversity in diet, plus that fact that 75% of the population in Ulaanbaatar live on less than $2 per day. The Batssuri’s might be the middle class of this still-developing society even they spend little money on food.

     The diet of the family is relatively balanced and healthy but they are heavy on red meat. It makes sense that meat, especially beef and mutton, is cheaper because Mongolia is largely composed of grassland. Grazing is the No.1 industry in Mongolia. $13 is spent on meat, fish, and eggs, including 6.8lb of beef and 4.4lb of mutton. But meat is not a large proportion of their family diet. Comparing to their sizes and the amount of fruit and dessert they have, 1.5lb of meat every day for the family is not that much. The family also eats 30 eggs for the whole week, an egg for everyone every day. That’s a lot of protein in the diet. And meant and eggs probably don’t cost that much in Ulaanbaatar.

Cheese is not a common food in this family’s diet because it’s considered as a luxury food. That’s why the family eats very little cheese, which also indicates that the family is in the lower-to-middle class.

Starchy food and grains are not a huge proportion, either, but they do eat a lot of bread. $5.41 is spent on starchy food, much of which is bread (15.4lb) and potatoes (11lb). You can see the pile of bread and potatoes at the back of the table. The Batssuri family eats a lot of sweet stuff. 2.2lb of sugar is consumed in a week and 6.6lb of pastries is consumed. High meat and high sugar in the meal is not good to their body.

But the family is pretty healthy in terms of eating sufficient amount of fruit and vegetables. $8 is spent on vegetables and fruit and the No.1 fruit in the family is green apple (4.4lb). Cucumber is a major consumption in the family (5.3lb) because it's cheap and has a high yield in the local climate.

     Interestingly, the family doesn’t drink much beverage. You barely see any drink in the picture except three bottles of beer. Most of their drink is black tea. That’s a culture habit but it's also very healthy because the chemicals in tea help breaks down fat in blood. Another healthy diet habit is that the family mostly buys raw gradients and cooks the food themselves, which ensures that they eat fresh food.