The amount of money people spend on food, beverages, and tobacco is an excellent measure of a country's standard of living. Comparing U.S. food expenditures with those of other countries entails putting the statistics on a common ground. This series of tables and charts relates food, beverages, and tobacco statistics to the U.S. dollar and to disposable personal income, a unit of account not readily available for foreign countries. Comparisons show that dollar for dollar, U.S. consumers spend smaller portions of their paychecks for food than anyone else in the world.