Things I take for granted about food

In 2010, John Scalzi wrote a pretty good post of the things that he doesn’t have to think about every day (that other people do). I wanted to try something similar but make it very detailed about a specific area. Food’s really yummy so why not food? Below is a list of all the things I get to take for granted about food.

It’s by no means exhaustive. The whole point is that there are many items I’m too sheltered to even be aware of. Still, it’s sobering to go for a deep dive into what I have. Especially since the people who don’t have some of these things number in the billions. Some of these are graphic. Here goes:

1. I’ve never had a condition that requires significant medical intervention as part of the eating process (eg. drips, colostomy bags). I can taste food, chew and swallow.
2. I’ve never had a condition that significantly impairs what I can eat (eg. diabetes, food allergies).
3. I get to eat. I’ve never experienced hunger.
4. I’ve never worried about where my next meal is coming from.
5. I’ve never stored food away for difficult times because I don’t anticipate any.
6. I’ve never experienced loss of sleep, concentration, work or personal relationships because of hunger.
7. I’ve never needed to eat out of rubbish bins, go dumpster-diving or look greedily at leftovers because I had no alternative.
8. I’ve never had to ask or beg someone for food.
9. I’ve never needed to work up the moral courage to walk up to food that’s been left, abandoned or thrown away in public in order to take it — while people look at me.
10. I’ve never had a problem getting all the nutrients I need to live life.
11. I’ve never been weak from lack of micro-nutrients. I’ve never lived in a country where most women are not eligible to give blood because or pernicious anemia. I’ve never been so weak that I wasn’t able to feed myself.
12. Not only have I never had scurvy, avitaminosis, mineral deficiency, pellagra, but I don’t even have to know anything about them. I’ve never eaten a loaf of bread and left blood drops on the bread with each bite from my gums, or lost a tooth in the bread.
13. I’ve never eaten things that aren’t normally considered food out of desperation — not grass and not carrion. I’ve never had to eat a pet or companion animal to survive. I’ve never made soup out of leather shoes. I’ve never made soup in order to stretch out existing ingredients (like onion skins).
14. I’ve never had to choose one of my kids to be the one to receive food (and possibly to live).
15. I’ve never had the above happened to my loved ones. I’ve never seen someone die of malnutrition.
16. My body doesn’t have a long-term famine response. I’ve never been in a state where I’ve had a psychological switch turn on, where I’m constantly eating whatever I can — even when food is in abundance — because my body has learned to constantly be hungry.
17. The food I eat is free from faeces and I’ve escaped many diseases because of this.
18. The food I eat is free from significant contamination and poisoning. I do not live in a country whose entire agricultural sector is an environmental disaster.
19. Because of this (and not having to dumpster-dive), I’ve never worried about the safety of food that others have given me. I’ve never had to eat a stranger’s leftovers while wondering what the consequences might be.
20. The food I eat is regulated and labelled by processes that — while imperfect — generally work.
21. I can buy food that’s made almost anywhere in the world and the labels I need to make a decision will be written in a language I can understand.
22. I’m very unlikely to die or become sick from eating contaminated food.
23. If I get sick, I’m very close to quality hospitals, with doctors who will not deny me treatment and systems that will not bankrupt me.
24. I won’t get skin cancer from picking food off my fields in 18 hour stretches.
25. I can consume food in a private place. I don’t have to worry about stashing it or fighting over it.
26. I’ve never experienced the terror of heavily armed people who are desperately hungry.
27. I’ve never been raped or assaulted while gathering food — or firewood to cook food.
28. I don’t have to cross unstable borders or go into forbidden zones to obtain food.
29. I probably won’t get killed or mugged for my food. There are no raiders waiting to attack my food sources.
30. I’m not compelled to eat with incredible speed — to the point of choking — because I haven’t eaten for days, because I’m not sure if I’ll get another opportunity to eat again or because the food is about to be taken away.
31. I don’t have to carry heavy amounts of food for long distances (and through dangerous territory) to get it home.
32. My country has the infrastructure to get food to me with the most minimal of efforts on my behalf.
33. I don’t live in a food desert. I have access to supermarkets and shops with a variety of food at low prices. I’m not surrounded by nothing but “convenience” stores where I have to pay double for the privilege of living in an underserviced neighbourhood.
34. I don’t have to make food from scratch. I’ve never had to pound grain for hours in a hand mill because of my geographic location, economic situation and gender.
35. I have the physical ability to cook.
36. However, I often don’t have to cook for myself. I regularly consume food that’s made by others. It just magically appears there.
37. I can afford food. Not just today, but ongoing — even if I stop working.
38. I don’t have to budget extensively to afford to eat. I don’t have to decide between food and something else. Store coupons don’t mean much. Being at an all-you-can-eat buffet is not seen by me as a worthwhile nutritional investment.
39. I can also afford to cook for friends and family and eat out. I don’t experience the shame and ostracism of not being able to participate in social activities relating to communal eating.
40. I get cheap food because I’m not poor. I can afford to save money by buying in bulk. I’m not paying more for food every day because I’ve never saved up just enough to buy a fridge.
41. Because of how I look, I can get free food at lots of venues. I will get handed corporate free samples in the city because I don’t look like I don’t need it. I can wander into a corporate event and start eating canapes and I won’t be removed for looking too poor for free food.
42. I can afford not to be obsessed with food.
43. I have access to a wide variety of groceries.
44. I have access to a wide variety of restaurants and cuisines. Most of these are cheap based on purchasing power parity.
45. I have access to enough variety that I can maintain a diet of almost any dietary requirements. I can eat a vegetarian, vegan, carnivorous, gluten-free, keto, kosher, halal, raw food, organic, macrobiotic diet. I can have a diet that conforms to my personal views and is not constrained much externally.
46. My food choices aren’t broadly restricted by government policy or other people’s religion.
47. I have the ability to change my diet any time I wish.
48. I have an intact sense of taste and can enjoy food.
49. I have the ability, time and resources to try new foods and recipes. It is also both culturally and socially acceptable (and even encouraged) for me to do so — I’m unlikely to suffer blowback.
50. If I eat foods that are considered highly unusual or socially unacceptable, it will be from choice not necessity.
51. I don’t have a metabolic or other physical condition that significantly dictates my body size based on what I eat, to the extent of damaging my health.
52. I don’t have any eating orders.
53. My brain does not give me a distorted body image that makes any sort of eating (or not eating) a struggle.
54. I don’t struggle with significant eating compulsions and the shame and guilt associated with them.
55. I don’t have eating disorders that could threaten my life, my physical or mental health, my relationships, activities work etc.
56. I have not been socially predisposed to be negatively affected by advertising and the media in terms of body image and eating choices. Advertising doesn’t directly tell me not to eat. It doesn’t tell me to eat much less than I do — and that I’m disgusting and unworthy if I don’t change my behaviour.
57. My choices about what to eat aren’t dictated by a spouse, parent, religious leader, prison warden or government official.
58. I will not be refused service at a restaurant or food store because of how I look or what I’m perceived to be.
59. There are no active racist stereotypes about the foods that I consume or the way that I consume those foods. (Related stereotypes do exist but I don’t have to deal with them directly.) Images of people eating food that I encounter in my culture will not be a form of harassment.
60. What I eat is classified by others as “food”, and not as something disgusting which makes me barely human for eating it.
61. People don’t think they know my ethnic cuisine better than me or think they “know” me because they eat a western-acceptable version of some foods I eat.
62. People don’t dehumanise me with comments/tropes about how much the foods I make smell
63. Or how much my ethnicity smells because of the food “we” allegedly make.
64. Nobody gets to score political points by making statements about feeding (or not feeding) me.
65. I don’t feel indignity or judgement from the mere act of eating, from the social status of how I was able to obtain or afford food.
66. Nobody questions whether it’s “worth” feeding me or not.
67. People won’t question whether food that I’m eating is appropriate for my gender or size. Because of this, I can buy or eat food without shame, self-hatred, sniggering or harassment by staff etc.
68. People won’t assume that I’m on a diet or want to lose weight just because of my gender.
69. I don’t have to deal with talk about “sinning”, morality and redemption when eating high-calorie foods.
70. I will not get served last or left hungry (even inside my own family!) because of who I am.
71. If I eat a lot, this will be considered acceptable because of who I am.
72. I don’t have to eat separately from other people because of who I am.
73. The food that I make or handle is not considered a religious or cultural contaminant because it comes from someone of my race/religion/gender/caste/menstrual status. People generally don’t throw away food because part of it has touched me or been in my vicinity.
74. The mere fact that someone provides me with enough food not to die has never been used as an excuse to enslave me or as justification that I’m being treated “well” by my “owner”.
75. I’ve never been force-fed (especially something I find abhorrent) for political, mental health or religious reasons.
76. My livelihood doesn’t depend on remaining on a restrictive diet or being hungry all the time or being told when and how much to eat.
77. I’ve never had to engage in extreme forms of manual labour in exchange for food because somebody thinks I need to earn my keep through suffering.
78. I’ve never had access to food be used on me as a bargaining chip in an interrogation.
79. I’ve never had to have sex with someone in exchange for food.
80. I’ve never had to get access to food under the deal that I can chew on someone’s loaf of bread only for the duration of the sexual encounter. I’ve never had this person freeze the loaf beforehand so that I’d get almost nothing.
81. I’ve never been required to espouse a particular religious/political opinion or creed in exchange for food.
82. People don’t refrain from giving me food because they think I don’t “need it”.
83. I’ve never had my hunger ignored in a news story that explains how well my country is doing.
84. If I say I’m hungry, people will believe me. They won’t question how someone can be hungry in a developed country.
85. I’ve never been in an extreme situation where I might have to engage in cannibalism (or have it done to me) because of necessity or hatred.
86. I’ve never had the fact of whether I get to eat or not depend on investment bankers, politicians, the whims of ten million individual donors, interest rates or celebrity news 12,000 kilometres away.
87. I’ve never had my death from starvation written up as being from other causes because it’s embarrassing, declared a necessity, labelled as collateral damage, hailed as the removal of vermin from the face of the earth, used as a platform for celebrity activism or cited to argue that my people were lazy, undeserving and inferior all along.

This is the relationship with food I get to have.