Quote:
Originally posted by Sidd Finch
I don't think the point is that you shouldn't have ordered the extra french fries so they could've gone to the starving Chinese. The point was that you should be thankful that you have food, and shouldn't waste it. My parents were like your grandparents in this regard -- their view was that tossing good food is a "sin". There's just no debating with that. And in truth, it's pretty easy to understand their point of view, considering that they grew up in environments where they regularly prayed for food -- not thanking God for giving them food (i.e., grace), but praying for more because they were hungry.
It's really a cultural shift -- the notion of eating so much that it is unhealthy is something my parents simply didn't grow up with. They grew up with hunger. It's pretty hard to leave that behind, and to see a wasted 15 cents worth of pasta as worth only, well, 15 cents.
I still have trouble leaving food behind, but I've progressively gotten over it as portions have gotten so out of control. And, I do have my mom's tendency to over-shop and over-cook, which ultimately leads to wasted food.
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I think that's exactly right. My grandparents lived through the depression and my parents were poor. The thought of wasting food of any kind was unthinkable. I'm thinking that if you've grown up in an environment where you could have food one day and then not again for awhile, you would tend to eat everything you had, not knowing if you would ever see the bounty again.
The way it is now, and the fact that most people have enough money and enough food to have never known hunger is foreign to the older folks.
I guess it's all about where you come from.
