My body is not a garbage disposal

I gotta disagree with viewing perfectly good food as 'garbage'. Such a flippant attitude when so many people don't have or can't afford enough to eat.

Obviously I'm not talking about leaving a few bits of meat or half a potato on the plate when you're full or not eating something because it doesn't taste nice, but if you're leaving food on your plate, you ARE wasting all that food by virtue of the fact that you have made/taken/ordered more than you intend to eat.

paperpudding wrote: »

I don't agree with the last couple of posts.

If I order cake ( or a main meal) and it is more than I want, or I don't really like it, I don't feel obliged to finish it.
Or to take it home.

It is no more wasted by me leaving it than eating more than I want it to or taking it home if I dont want it.
Nor does it help anyone who doesn't have or can't afford food.

Far better to accept not eating everything in front of me if I don't want it and doing something actually useful for others - eg donating money to a charity feeding the homeless

Not wasting food might make me feel better but doesn't really benifit anyone.

Exactly this, and this was my realization that was similar to OP's.

If I eat something I am no longer enjoying (because I've eaten enough) or don't need (already had plenty) or feel that because I accidentally made too much or the restaurant portion was too large I must find a way to eat that food the next day, that's not helping anyone. I somewhat got adjusted to the restaurant thing just because I go to the theater or concerts a lot, and you can't really carry around leftovers for another 3 hours before putting them away (and wouldn't particularly want to have leftovers with you anyway), so I had to be okay with saying "no, I can't take leftovers." Some restaurants have okay portions, but so many have larger ones, and that's not my fault and doesn't mean I must eat everything.

I'm good with portion control with homemade food now, but eating it all just because I accidentally made too much (especially with pasta) and it wouldn't save well or there wasn't enough for a full second meal is something I used to do that was obviously irrational (since I wasn't even wanting to eat the rest) when I thought about it. It was treating myself like a garbage disposal -- not because the food was "garbage," but because the alternative was putting it in the garbage or down the sink disposal.

I also won't eat something just because it's there (another thing I used to do). Now I'm much more picky.

People choosing to throw away some food they cooked or bought doesn't affect scarcity. Most food waste happens at a different stage in the food chain anyway, it's not like you could donate the food (unless it's a package unopened), and me not eating a whole restaurant meal does not drive up the cost of food for others.

This is of interest: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/american-food-waste/491513/

"What causes [the extensive food waste in the US]? A major reason is that food is cheaper in the United States than nearly anywhere else in the world, aided (controversially) by subsidies to corn, wheat, milk, and soybeans. But the great American squandering of produce appears to be a cultural dynamic as well, enabled in large part by a national obsession with the aesthetic quality of food. Fruits and vegetables, in addition to generally being healthful, have a tendency to bruise, brown, wilt, oxidize, ding, or discolor and that is apparently something American shoppers will not abide. For an American family of four, the average value of discarded produce is nearly $1,600 annually. (Globally, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that one-third of all food grown is lost or wasted, an amount valued at nearly $3 trillion. )

Writing about food waste for The Atlantic back in 2014, Elizabeth Segran gestured at both the shoppers who refuse to buy imperfect-looking fruit as well as the grocers who refuse to stock the shelves with any wonky-looking wares. “Grocery stores routinely trash produce for being the wrong shape or containing minor blemishes,” Doug Rauch, the former president of the Trader Joe’s Company, told her.

But that assumes such produce even reaches the stores. Quoting workers and experts at a variety of vantage points in the food system, The Guardian’s Suzanne Goldenberg also reports that, “Vast quantities of fresh produce grown in the U.S. are left in the field to rot, fed to livestock or hauled directly from the field to landfill, because of unrealistic and unyielding cosmetic standards.”

“In my mind, the desire for perfect produce came about in the 1940s as housewives adapted to widespread refrigeration and new CPG [consumer packaged goods] products,” Eve Turow Paul, the author of A Taste of Generation Yum, writes in an email. “Suddenly, you could get a pineapple in Chicago in January. Wonderbread hit shelves a decade before. Perfection and manicured foods came to represent safety and new technology.”

So focusing on not eating all of your Chinese food as something that's going to lead to bad effects is focusing on the wrong part of the problem, especially when the customer in many cases cannot control the size of the portion, and foods not sold will likely end up disposed of by the restaurant anyway.

I read the original post as more of a metaphor. If I had chinese leftovers in the fridge, I used to obsess over them and eat them when I wasn't hungry, and in addition to my regular meals, not in place of. I honestly think this is just as wasteful as throwing it away. When humans eat way more food than they need, or restaurants choose to serve 4 serving size portions instead of 1, it's all wasteful. Putting water on tables before asking the guests if they want it is wasteful. A parent shouldn't feel guilty about not finishing 2 lunches, one that was theirs and one that they made for their toddler throwing a fit who doesn't want to eat all of the sudden.

My grandparents were Great Depression survivors and fanatics about conserving food. So my parents were raised that way, and to a degree, so was I. On top of that, the military's "take what you want, but eat what you take" was hammered into me after I left home. Scrape viable food into the garbage in front of your drill sergeant and you were in for an uncomfortable conversation.

Now, I honestly think it is more dangerous as a society to eat food you don't need instead of throwing it out, given the fact that the US is over 70% overweight or obese. Every effort should be made to get the correct portions on your plate, but if you have too much, eating just to avoid waste is unhealthy. Throw it away and try harder to get the portion right next time.

Now, while I agree with OP's meaning of her statement. Dont eat it just because it's there, there is usually someone who will. I worked on the back of a restaurant several times over the years. People would be shocked how much goes to the hogs. I will take left overs to work or family. I have noticed putting a sticker that says free on something in the work fridges, it's gone within hours.

I don't think I have a mantra, but if I did, it would be something like: "Whether you eat the lettuce-wrapped burger or the one with the bun, and order a side salad or a side of fries, and drink water or a beer, in four-five hours you'll be brushing your teeth and going to bed, and not taste either anymore. But you'll sleep better knowing you made the smarter choice and didn't overload on nighttime carbs."

A bit too long-winded for a mantra! I need a copy editor.

mtaratoot wrote: »

paperpudding wrote: »

I don't agree with the last couple of posts.

If I order cake ( or a main meal) and it is more than I want, or I don't really like it, I don't feel obliged to finish it.
Or to take it home.

It is no more wasted by me leaving it than eating more than I want it to or taking it home if I dont want it.
Nor does it help anyone who doesn't have or can't afford food.

Far better to accept not eating everything in front of me if I don't want it and doing something actually useful for others - eg donating money to a charity feeding the homeless

Not wasting food might make me feel better but doesn't really benifit anyone.

I have to disagree with this at least to some degree.

In the USA, nearly 40% of all food is wasted. This is a travesty. It takes energy to grow and transport food. If it's meat, even more so. Many farming practices deplete soil health. Declining soil health means lower productivity in the future. All the transport uses fuel and energy. I think we all have a responsibility to each other and to the other animals that live on our planet to do whatever we can to use resources such as energy and water efficiently and without waste. On the other end of the system, adding to landfills is detrimental to the health of the inhabitants of Earth. At least there's some progress on this where some restaurants are able to have food waste composted. At least that helps mitigate the decline in soil health if the compost is put back into the growing cycle. It seems to me that when we waste resources, we do hurt ourselves and others. Maybe just a little each time, but it adds up. Not wasting food benefits EVERYONE.

Whether or not you waste food has nothing to do with a decision to donating money to non-profits and making sure food banks have food to help those who can't afford it.

This will be my last post on this topic because I fear it may turn into a political discussion, and I don't want to participate in that on this forum. Please be considerate when ordering so you don't have to make the choice of wasting such a valuable resource as food. That's where you can avoid the waste AND avoid feeling like you're a garbage disposal.

I didn't say wasting food has anything to do with donating money to charities - I said instead of finishing everything on your plate in some misguided But children are starving in Africa! Thing - do something that actually benefits children in Africa ( or the equivalent) by donating to Save the children or a foodbank or something.
Make a planned decision to do domething that actually benefits them.
Eating or not eating leftovers doesn't benifit anyone.

And of course aim to not have leftovers. - but I can't always control how much a restaurant serves me or how filling it will be or whether I will like it
Some factors at home are unavoidable too.

Where I live all leftover food goes in green bin, not to land fill.