Dec 15, 2009

Do Russians Eat Like German POWs?


No, Russians are worse off.

According to analysis by Roman Kupchinsky and Paul Goble: "Russians currently consume [the] same number of calories daily that German POWs did in Soviet Camps in 1941." That's 2,550 calories ("below medical norms") if you are keeping score at home.

The figures are from Rosstat, and are one of the clearest signs yet that Team Putin might know how to execute a call-in show, but it's having trouble feeding the country better than German POWs.

Why are Russians worse off? According to the data, Russians are hitting the 2,550 threshold by substituting alcohol for fresh food. By the government's own analysis, even food in major cities is "of low quality, older than [its] use-by date, or 'simply dangerous' for consumers."

For anyone who has ever gone hungry, this is quite sad. But sadder still that Russians are no longer free to change the government that feeds them like prisoners.

Here's the full article, if you're day is just going too well.

3 comments:

Emil Perhinschi said...

That is a load of ... the recommended intake is about 1900 calories per day for women and 2500 for men, depending on height etc. or from 2200 calories per day for men doing light work up to 3500 calories per day for men doing heavy physical labor.

poemless said...

There is either some fuzzy math going on here or your idea of medical norms and those of the US FDA are very divergent. It is recommended the average American have a 2000 cal./day diet (though it all depends on your gender, amount of energy you exert, etc.) Anything OVER 2500 is only recommended if you need to gain weight or other exceptional circumstances. (BTW, I doubt German POWs were getting that much.) The only thing objectionable here is that people are getting calories from alcohol.

Emil Perhinschi said...

1900/2500 was quoted in some UK regs

2200 to 3500 is what Rumanian official regs. (like applying to boarding schools or the military) recommend ... and quite appropriate, since I used to do some work that would have qualified me for 3500, took less, and loss of weight ensued.

I still have to see somebody getting fat on alcohol, unless it's beer and then it's the protein in the beer that is to blame.

Synthetic rubber has calories, too, except you die if you eat it. Alcohol is not "nourishing" ... "people living only by drinking alcohol" is an urban legend.

Average American ... it depends on age, gender, work, metabolism ... just hope you don't live in Alaska, work in the lumber industry and try to restrict yourself to 2000 cal/day :-) . I have seen some US charts with "recommended cal./day" ... and the funny people who composed them put 120cal./day for a baby!! ... probably it was some simple math about body weight and calories, but it was just dumb.

It used to be that the drunkards of Europe were the Germans (XVIIIth and XIXth centuries), but then smart people say it was only propaganda aimed at "dehumanizing" the people in whose backyards most of the wars waged by more sober countries took place. I think it's about the same about Russia.