Do you ever feel guilty?

dill_milk

Half the world is starving, and we're stuffing our faces to feed our own vanity. I know I feel guilty sometimes. I guess one-third of the food grown in the world gets thrown away anyway, so if nobodies gonna feed the poor we might as well eat it so it doesn't go to waste, right?

anubis609

Not one bit. Thinking about another person's misfortune doesn't do anything except place the unfortunate in a state of pity and the thinker on some false moral high ground. They make do with what they have and industrialized countries do what they want with what they don't need.

Whether you eat all your food, throw it away, or refuse to buy it is a personal choice. Ultimately, it's not going anywhere except on a sale shelf or an expired trash pile.

kenyonhaff

I sometimes hear that grandma voice "Children in China are starving...don't waste that food" in my head.

But I find that making donations to food shelfs and other food charities--that actually GET food to people in need--helps quell that voice. So I don't overeat and I can let it go.

Here's one of my favorite, and it's free: https://thehungersite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/ths/home;jsessionid=4453D3F889F19032C92EDA78F133D891?1

seltzermint555

Hmm. Not about food, honestly. I do feel that way about water though, whether it's a bath or washing dishes or just drinking so many glasses of clean, tasty tap water all day long. Guilt.

kenyonhaff

Also, there's no way to eliminate ALL waste. A lot of that waste happens before food gets into your shopping cart. And you shouldn't eat spoiled food, which happens.

Some of the simpliest ways to minimize waste at home is to:
*Make a list for shopping
*Plan meals: make sure that fresh arugula has a dish to go into sooner rather than later.
*If you don't really like it, don't buy it.
*Eat leftovers. They make cheap lunches, they can be reused in later dinners, too.

JeromeBarry1

Half the world is not starving. If you want to believe that your own prosperity is some sort of global wrong, please accept my pity.

AEC50

Working to reduce food waste is important, environmentally. There are lots of great programs and organizations working to redirect surplus food to communities with need. The best thing to do is to only purchase what you need and use what you do buy. Over-buying encourages over-production which isn't helpful.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/initiatives/food-waste

That said, I work to reduce my own food waste and support programs that feed those in need. I don't feel guilty for eating what I need. We all do our part, but no one person can fix a problem on their own.

quiksylver296

Not one bit. I do feel blessed to live in a first world country where I don't have worry about my next meal. I make donations to my charities of choice, because I am able to.

RoxieDawn

I have to say not one time I have been eating in a surplus I have never felt guilty. And its not just for vanity sake, I am old so this is a very worthy cause, my health and its fun. We all spend money on things we enjoy don't we?

I will say my husband comments on the amount of food and says its like feeding growing teenagers all over again.

kam26001

If I don't eat this vegan pizza, who will?

RoxieDawn

quiksylver296 wrote: »

Not one bit. I do feel blessed to live in a first world country where I don't have worry about my next meal. I make donations to my charities of choice, because I am able to.

JeromeBarry1

@dill_milk I did a little bit of googling and found at https://www.worldhunger.org/2015-world-hunger-and-poverty-facts-and-statistics/ this paragraph

"Does the world produce enough food to feed everyone?

The world produces enough food to feed everyone. For the world as a whole, per capita food availability has risen from about 2220 kcal/person/day in the early 1960s to 2790 kcal/person/day in 2006-08, while developing countries even recorded a leap from 1850 kcal/person/day to over 2640 kcal/person/day. This growth in food availability in conjunction with improved access to food helped reduce the percentage of chronically undernourished people in developing countries from 34 percent in the mid 1970s to just 15 percent three decades later. (FAO 2012, p. 4) A principal problem is that many people in the world still do not have sufficient income to purchase (or land to grow) enough food or access to nutritious food. This is an element of “food access”. The FAO defines four dimensions of food security, all of which must be fulfilled simultaneously, for food security to exist. The four dimensions are: 1) physical availability of food, 2) economic and physical access to food, 3) food utilization, and 4) the stability of those other dimensions over time."

Of note is that there is plenty of food. There's a whole long inconclusive discussion here about the distribution of grocery stores in advanced societies. The large problem of societal starvation is often a direct result of government decisions, as when 20th century collectivisation in Ukraine and China led to massive die-offs of starving people. This is also the cause of hunger affecting millions of people in Yemen, Syria and Venezuela today. In Yemen, the issue is a war launched by another government. In Syria, the issue is a civil war. In Venezuela, the issue is entirely due to a government at internal and external peace, but still unable to distribute goods effectively. These are big and real problems, none of which will be solved by any individual volunteering to suffer.

Evamutt

i've always felt not to waste food. My family escaped Hungary during the revolution & before that would stand in long lines to get food. Although I was a baby & don't remember that, I always had to eat everything on my plate. When my kids were small I worked for the school district & picked up extra hours by monitoring in the cafeteria during lunch. It bothered me so much all the food thrown out & had to stop working during lunch. I was always afraid of going hungry one of these days. I've learned to let go with the help of my kids so now a days, especially since mfp where I don't want to eat things I don't really like & use calories, we do get rid of things.We give them to our neighbor or our grown kids or our dogs, so it's not really wasted

Gallowmere1984

Vanity? I’m stuffing my face to fuel physical performance. Narcissistic maybe, but vain? Not so much.

livingleanlivingclean

I eat less because of vanity, not more. I'm more careful about how much I eat because of vanity and my diet is more planned, making food purchases planned. I generally only buy what I need, and make use of anything that looks like its not going to last (my freezer has a lot of random odds and ends...).

I don't feel guilty about eating. I dislike that local supermarkets won't drastically reduce items if they are "use by" the day of purchase, throwing them away instead. Surely it makes more sense to sell them for a minimal amount, make some money, and reduce waste?

comptonelizabeth

I don't feel guilty about eating. I do dislike food waste and that makes me feel guilty.

cityruss

No.

fb47

As long as I am within my calories, I never feel guilty. Even on the little occasions where I eat like a pig, I still don't feel guilty because I know how this game is played after 5 years of tracking macros...and I can't feel guilty for other people less fortunate than us, because that's something I have no control of, the only thing I can control is what my body needs to perform optimally. At least I am not wasting any food like I see people doing. I remember when I went on a cruise, it's incredible the amound of food wasting I saw. That part is what I find irritating.

Lean59man

"The poor will always be with you." -- Jesus

vegmebuff

http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeye/episodes/wasted-the-story-of-food-waste

this was most interesting I found

goldthistime

I feel guilty about food waste from an environmental perspective. I've felt guilty about it for a while but just in the last couple weeks have started to talk to my family about it frequently. Myself, my husband and my daughter each pick up groceries whenever we want, and each cook when we want, making enough for everyone of course. Often it works out, but at least some of the time we can't keep up to the fresh food in the fridge or to the leftovers or both. As a starting point, we're trying to communicate better, and make better use of the freezer (although I just emptied IT out, food waste there too).

I'd LOVE to hear from others how they minimize food waste at their house.