Food for thought

I am very careful with the quantity of food that is served on my plate. Not that I am obsessed with my weight (I used to be fat once upon a time, but it had nothing to do with the quantity of food I consumed). The plain reason is that I don't like wasting food. Ever since I was a kid, even when I nothing about world hunger, food scarcity, food security, and what nots, I made a point to finish off whatever was served to me. This must have come to me as a legacy from my father. He is an idealist in so many ways, and respecting food tops his list.

This world has many ugly sides to it; One of them is Hunger. Data show that there were 925 million hungry people in this world in 2010. This is a huge number. I am not saying that you will be feeding anyone if you do not waste food. You probably won't. May be the world hunger will remain at its present mark, may be people will keep dying of hunger, may be children will continue to be malnourished, may be women will keep dying during childbirth because of lack of proper food. But, by not wasting food, you will sleep peacefully without having any kind of guilt. You will know that you had only what was meant for you, what was your share.

I am not sure why am I writing about hunger and food today. May be I am feeling guilty . The first article I read today morning was about hunger and about ways we can avoid wasting food. And I was proud that I belong to the group that does not waste food. But today. when I went to a restaurant, I did otherwise. I tried to stuff myself with the extras, but just could not. So, it may be this guilt of throwing away food that compelled me to write this. I don't want to feel this way again. I will make a point to order only what I can eat the next time I visit a restaurant. I will certainly not be contributing anything to this world, but at least I will sleep peacefully.