Waste not; waist more

Each year, 108 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States. That equates to 130 billion meals and more than $408 billion in food thrown away each year. Shockingly, nearly 40% of all food in America is wasted.  Feeding America website

From 1999 –2000 through 2017 –March 2020, US obesity prevalence increased from 30.5% to 41.9%. During the same time, the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%. (NHANES, 2021)

Hmmmm, coincidence? I don’t think so. Let me explain.

As a child, my parents always admonished me to “clean my plate.” The consequence of not doing so was being denied dessert - which was often lime Jello with embedded suspended canned fruit. Yum. Who wouldn’t force down those last couple of bites of creamed chipped beef on toast or liver and onions?.

As an adult, it is more often my conscience that guilts me into joining the clean plate club. Combined with echoes of my grandmother’s statement “think of all those starving children in China,” a plethora of articles about food waste/food insecurity in this country guilt me into not wasting food. 

And how does one not waste food? By eating it, of course.

I certainly do my best to minimize putting any edibles in the trash. I buy minimum quantities of perishable foods, shop relatively often, use my fridge and freezer for leftovers, and happily eat those leftovers for lunch the next day. The odd stale slice of bread gets tossed into the backyard beneath the birdfeeder, defying the HOA rule not to feed wildlife. (Damn squirrels!)

Oversized restaurant meals get divided in half. I eat one and take the other home in a doggie box. My friend and I often share a meal or at least a salad. And then there is sometimes a “seniors” menu with smaller costs and serving sizes. Funny that no one IDs me anymore about qualifying.

But really, what does one do with those last couple teaspoons of chili, quarter cup of peas, or last slice of garlic bread?

The only PC thing to do is eat up. Especially if only a couple tablespoons of ice cream remain in the bottom of the carton. And buy pants with an expandable waistband.