Don’t Waste Food. Someone Somewhere Is Starving!

Oxfam East Africa – On the edge of Dadaab camp 01 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While out for an evening stroll, I had to duck to avoid getting wet by  a sprinkler that was hydrating someone’s grass.  I guess I was bored because I started thinking, “Look at that.  Watering lawns while people in Africa are dying for lack of clean drinkable water.”  Then I thought of all the ways we waste precious water.  Washing our cars, brushing our teeth and showering while the water runs…Then I thought of something else that we waste.  Food.

Remember your parents warning when you didn’t eat your food and they had to throw it out?  ”Don’t you know that in Africa someone is dying from starvation?”  It didn’t really change anything, did it?  We are still wasting our food.  Been to a buffet lately?  One of the biggest examples of food wastage right there.  (I still love a good buffet.   I call it unconditional love).

Wasting food and water is a relative thing.  We have lots of it always available when we want it so why ration it, right?  We are lucky to live in a country where we can eat and drink what we want when we want.  We can also take baths or showers whenever.  When such abundance is at our fingertips, it’s harder to not waste it.  You take a bite of steak and it’s not to your liking and you throw it out because you know what a good steak tastes like and it’s not like this.   Some don’t have that luxury but can you we be blamed?  I think not really.

Should we stop watering our grass, stop washing the car, take less showers and conserve water?  Maybe if you want to.  Would it help?  It might be as effective as those one-day gas boycotts.  Should we still throw out food?  It doesn’t matter the answer, we will always throw out food.  Let’s be real here.  So then what can we do?  People in Africa are indeed dying for what we are throwing out.  Heck, people down the street are in dire straits for lack of food.  But if I eat that piece of steak instead of throwing it out, how would that curb world hunger?  It’s not like someone in Africa owned the cow.

So what the point in talking about it if we are still going to waste resources that people are dying for?  Respect.  Yes, how about we respect what we have?  Our water, food, etc.  If we respect them then we would finish that steak but vow to make it better next time.  We would shut off the water when while we brush our teeth.  We would perhaps use a bucket instead of a hose to wash our cars.

If you don’t care about the dying Africans or the guy down the street, at least we should be thankful and respect what we have.  Ultimately, we might inadvertently be saving the lives of those dying for what we are wasting.

Just my take.

Note:  Even the Pope is feeling me.  A day after I drafted this blog, the Pope released a statement saying that wasting food is like stealing from the poor.

Related articles

• The Culture of Waste (percalamus.com)
• Food Loss and Waste: a Threat to Sustainability (ecoagriculturiste.wordpress.com)
• Pope: Wasting Food Is Like Stealing From The Poor (webpronews.com)
• Africa wastes 1.3bn tons of food annually – Commissioner (vanguardngr.com)
• 29 Smart and Easy Tips to Reduce Food Waste (greatist.com)
• Get in the habit of eating half of your meal (slimlean.wordpress.com)

Food Glorious Food!

 

mmmm….so filling

 

Do you know what is the best food for filling you up so you don’t go eating like a pig all day?  Me neither.  I doubt there is any, at least in my case.

 

I don’t have a weight problem, thanks to good genes (or is that jeans?) and a high metabolism, but I do have a problem with portions.  I eat it all! All of it! At any time.  So quite naturally, I am always on the lookout for foods that the pros recommend for keeping us feeling full longer.  As I call them ‘Filler-upper foods’.

 

Here is a list of the top ten and how they stack up.

 

Porridge – This apparently is supposed to be the top dog for filler-uppers.  Have it first thing in the mornings and you should be good until lunch.   Who are they kidding? Porridge fills me up for a good two hours and that’s it!  By lunch time, I am starving.  I should know, I have a bowl or two every morning.

 

Potatoes – Um, yeah? Do you mean potato chips?  Maybe if I munch on chips all day long I’ll be full.

 

Soup – SOUP?  Are you kidding me?  Soup tells you that your food is on its way, so warm up the digestive system.   Seriously folks?  You want me to eat a bowl of soup and stay full?  Just for the records, I don’t like soup much.

 

Pasta – Now we are talking! After a few bowls of pasta, I am usually good for a while.  I said a while,  don’t get carried away now.

 

Oranges – If you offer me an orange when I say I am hungry, I will throw it back at you.  I eat an orange AFTER my meal, not before.  It’s a snack or a dessert and not intended to fill anyone up.

 

Popcorn – Say what? I have popcorn during a movie and when the movie is over, I can hardly wait to eat  real food.  Maybe it’s from seeing all that food in the movies. I love popcorn!

 

Beans – This turns to gas in your tummy so it’s a case of  ’fill er up’.  Beans is part of my meal, as in a side dish.  It doesn’t do the trick. My father-in-law would sing, ‘Beans beans, the national fruit.  The more you eat it, the more you toot’.

 

Peanuts – Where is banana on this list?

 

Salad – Bush! If salad was a filler-upper food, do you think they would serve it before your entrée at restaurants?   Think about it.  A comedian once said,  ’Salad ain’t food.  Salad is what food eats.’

 

So my quest for the perfect filler-upper food continues…stay tuned folks!

 

 

 

Related articles

• Fill ‘Er Up! (theafterburnsg.wordpress.com)
• http://www.womenfitness.net/top10_stophungryfoods.htm

 

Whopping Whopper Price!

Am I so out of the loop that I don’t know the price of one of my favorite burgers?  Today, someone wanted me to pick up a whopper with cheese for them at Burger King.  They asked how much money it would cost and I said no more than $5.  Was I ever wrong!  At the drive through window, I was told that my total came up to $6.04.  My incredulous response was to ask if it was just for the Burger.  I thought that she had misheard my order. No, she repeated it and it was what it was.  Wow! A fricking burger without fries or drink selling for over $6?  Has BK turned into a fine diner?  That’s just unacceptable.  And also my take.