I hate wasting food. I don't know if it's because I'm a hoarder, or because my parents drilled it into my head that there's starving kids in third world countries with no food so it's a sin for me to waste mine. Whatever the reason, I cannot throw food away in good conscience. If it needs to go, I'll toss it out on the lawn for the birds and squirrels. If it's something birds and squirrels won't or shouldn't eat, I'll take it out behind the shed to leave on the "compost heap" (read: food pile for the feeding of deer and foxes). But I can't just throw it away.
So I go grocery shopping a lot. I'm not sure if that's weird - someone who's obsessed with food and starvation wandering around in the Stop & Shop multiple times a week. It has brought something to my attention - while there are plenty of options for people so hungry they can consume 4,000 calories in one sitting ("Value Size" sodas, potato chips, bags of cookies...), there are no options for people who want to consume a little less than average.
Perhaps I do not want an entire gallon of syrup. Perhaps I do not want 4 hearts of celery in one packet. I would just like one heart of celery, because I don't eat all that much and the rest is going to go bad before I get a chance to consume it. It's the worst with the vegetables, I think. You just can't buy a small sampling of any vegetable - you need to buy the whole bloody farm. Those Odwalla smoothies, for example:
That chocolate soy protein shake is delicious, but at 440 calories per 16 oz. bottle, you better believe it's going to take me at least a week to finish it. And by the end of the week, it has gone a bit off. Why can't it come in 4-oz. mini bottles, that I might drink in a day or two?
Same with cans of soup - why can't they have some mini ones, for those of us who want to consume only 100 calories of Healthy Choice New England clam chowder for dinner? They do it with the cookies and crackers and things with the 100-calorie packs! Sure you might say just eat half the can of soup and stick the rest in the fridge to eat later. But maybe I don't want to eat it later. Maybe I don't want soup twice in one week. What do I do then? I have to throw it away.
It's bullsh*t.
Oh my god, you are so right!
ReplyDeleteI too feel horrible about wasting food, but found out that there are certain things I just can't have, because they only come in huge containers and I'll either binge on them or feel horrible about having to throw them away.
Someone could make so much money out of just shrinking some packet sizes....
I know exactly what you speak of. I too have thought of this on many different occasions.
ReplyDeletehey u have a stop and shop too i never go in mine though well sometimes rarly
ReplyDeletei usually go into shoprite they have better fruit
and i alwasy pick the fruit apart and just get what i want
like with cherries i will open and bag and get one of those other bags and just weigh out what i want and then put the rest back
but ur right to manythings are too big
but i dont like throwing things away either manly cause i buy my own food and i mfind it as a waste of money money that i barely have but i can usually never finish what i make im weird i have to leave alil sometihng on my plate its just how my weird head works
my parents literally have pictures of me from my childhood, holding up a plate and showing it's perfectly clean. all because they were obsessed with me cleaning my plate. I know how you feel about wasting food.
ReplyDeleteI love fruit but I don't want to buy entire packages of strawberries or blueberries because they'll go bad before I finish them. maybe we should open up our own small portion grocery store. haha seriously.
Omg! I have the same issues all the time. Like right now, I have a massive bag of baby carrots in my fridge. I'll never eat all of them before the expiration date. What a waste...
ReplyDeleteLol. I dislike greatly when people tell me that there is some connection to my food and starving children..
ReplyDeleteMy not eating the food is not going to give it to those children in Africa or wherever.
And my eating the food is not going to take it away...
It's a thinker lol
Stay strong, love =]
i agree!!!! I was thinking this last week wen i went to do the shopping and was doing my usual label reading.... love ur blog by the way xoxoxoxoxo
ReplyDeleteI am the same way! I hate wasting food! It's especially bad now that I've been baking so much lately, so there is SO much food that could go bad, and I get so anxious about it. But then I get anxious when I don't bake :P it's weird. I know what you mean about the portion thing... They should sell smaller portions of stuff. Except with the soup, I usually eat a whole can, but I get the "light" soup, so a can ends up being about 120 calories anyway.
ReplyDeleteHaha I used to spend hours and hours every week looking through the aisles at different products.. in the end I'd just never get anything because packaged foods are just deceiving little fucks!
ReplyDeletexx
Oh. I hate wasting food also. but I feel just as guilty eating it. My solution: put it in the fridge. Someone's bound to go after it :]
ReplyDeleteaahhhh i totally agree with you !
ReplyDelete