Being grateful for food

You're so right on so many levels. We should thank and praise God for all he has given us and for all he does for us daily, giving us our daily bread and then some. We take many things for granted everyday. We should think twice before we complain.

This is a great post, and a great thought. Not only do people in other countries go hungry, but here in the US many children go to bed hungry every night. As gastankerdriv said, food in the US is in a way exploitative when you think about the food industry as a whole, however, those of us who can afford to eat well should be very thankful that we can.

I this post. Thank you!

This is meant to reflect on how lucky we are to have food, and I also hope that we can reevaluate our relationship with it.

I'll start. I live in the United States, and I have never gone without food. Never in my life have I been so hungry that I could cry, or so hungry that I would eat my cat or garbage or another person or food that should have been thrown away.

Every day people struggle to find enough food to eat, and I have been taking food for granted. When I think about all of the half-eaten entrees and slightly-too-brown bananas I have thrown away, I just cringe because someone somewhere would have wanted to eat it. And then I think about how I eat not just to relieve hunger, but often to soothe myself or because everyone else is doing it or simply because food is there.

I've never gone an entire 24 hours without eating. In fact, I think the longest time I've fasted is when I was having one of those glucose level tests done.

Anyway, I think it's good to contemplate how lucky you are to have access to food, especially healthy food. And I think taking five or ten seconds to think about how food came from the earth and found its way to your mouth can help you develop a healthier relationship with the food that you choose to eat.

I know that when I think about how a cheeseburger is made, soil to corn to cows and "pasteurized process cheese products" and refined grains, I feel stronger in my convictions to eschew such food.

Thank you for your humble, honest, thoughtful post and for starting this discussion. You have deeply touched me.

I also live in the USA. I am one of those who grew up often hungry in a family where there was never quite enough to eat or enough of other necessities. We were one of the families that would receive food baskets from the church at Thanksgiving and clothes, food and gifts from the Salvation Army sometimes at Christmas. The rest of the year we got by on Army surplus food (I think it was leftover from World War II) along with whatever my parents could put together, including from my mother's garden or my father sometimes bringing extra food home from the diners or cafes where he cooked. For a short time we were on welfare. I appreciated the kindness of the goodhearted people who provided the help we got and could feel their caring. Some help would come though with patronizing attitudes and racism, especially the welfare, and then it made me feel like my family was worthless. When I grew up and had enough resources to eat as much as I wanted, it amazed me how much and how many different kinds of foods there are and how much most people in our country have. It took a long time for me to be able to relax and count on enough good food. Even now I can't easily throw food away. I find ways to preserve it, if I can, before it goes bad and constantly look for ways to use and reuse it, even if it's to offer it to animals or compost it, so nothing is wasted. When my neighbors have trees full of fruit they are letting rot, I ask permission and pick it and bring it to the local shelters or give it to people I know who live on disability income. I'm always trying to grow something too, even if it's just a couple of tomato plants or a few herbs.

Eventually, I started using food the way many people do - for comfort, for pleasure, for socializing, to numb myself, etc. I also went a long time not knowing what appropriate portions are. I didn't like what all this was doing to me so I decided to learn everything I could about nutrition, how food is produced, and the politics of food. I also learned how important diet is for healing when one is sick. I gave up soda, caffeine, alcohol, and many more toxic things by the time I was twenty and haven't looked back. Soon after I became a vegetarian and am now recently becoming a vegan. I did all this for my personal health and to learn to feed my family well. I also did it to keep my footprint small on the planet and to do my part to end hunger for others because what I eat affects what is available for them to eat.

I heard of a legislator in California a few years back who decided to eat for several months on the same amount of money his poorest constituents had to eat on. He unintentionally lost a lot of weight but gained huge insight into what it's like to be poor and hungry. I expect he's a better legislator now.

I have voluntarily fasted a number of times in a healthy manner for several days to give my digestive system a break and to allow myself to start over eating right when I've been eating wrong too long. Later, I joined a religion that requires healthy, not pregnant adults to annually observe a limited fast just before our New Year. I look forward to these times because, while they can be challenging, I always come out of the fast having better discipline and new spiritual gains. After the fast this year I was led to MFP.

Today I am grateful for the power that knowledge has given me, for the sacred food that nurtures me, and for the pals I have found on MFP.