I hate trying to think of something to eat, I hate going to the grocery store, I hate food prep, and I am so freaking sick and tired of cleaning the kitchen. Eating is a pretty deeply ingrained habit that would be hard to break, but I think I’d do it. The big downside is that I suspect the kids wouldn’t be on board, so I’d have another 12ish years of shopping and cooking and cleaning. Sigh.
I’d do it for the money saved.
I’d kind of miss a few things, but I’d give up eating with only a second thought or two. Eating is often an annoying waste of time when I want to be doing other things, and even at the best of times, it’s not so awesome that I couldn’t do without, especially given the benefits being suggested.
Eating is often an annoying waste of time, but it’s not always an annoying waste of time. The reason I want people chow is so that most of the time, I can just eat it and feel full and feel like I eat healthy, but food is social and I am totally not willing to give up the social aspect of it.
One of the pinnacles of Buddhist practice has always been to regard food as medicine. If I could obviate my need for it, I’d definitely do so.
But can I still smoke?
I’d give it up without a moment’s thought. I eat because I have to, and it’s an annoyance.
Well, this poll is really cutting down my “I’ve just won the lottery - let’s invite all the Dopers to dinner” list.
Tough call, I do consider eating to be one of life’s simple pleasures, but it’s really only something I get to really enjoy ocassionally. I am in good shape and that means eating a lot, and not all of that is particularly tasty, and it can get quite expensive and tedious to do all of that shopping and preparation and the laborious task of just eating. In fact, I often have the problem of not eating enough, needing something on the order of 4000 calories, sometimes even more on a given day.
So, I’ll personally interpret the question more as, is that ocassional pleasure of a nicely prepared meal worth the hassle, cost in money and time, it takes most of the time? Sadly, it’s not, at least not at this stage in my life. A few years ago, when I was having delicious, well-prepared meals no less than once or twice a week, I probably would have gone the other way.
I think people are forgetting just how much of human social contact is centered around food. Try avoiding eating (or drinking, or coffee) outside of the home for just three months and you’ll see what I mean – you’d never see your friends. Live music plays at bars. Movie theatres have concession stands. Going to a play, you have dinner out before or dessert after. Invite people over to watch TV on your couch, and you’re probably ordering pizza.
Holidays? Centered around a meal or otherwise built around food in some way. How does your family spend Christmas, Passover, Yule, etc? Major holidays even come with traditional foods. Halloween? Candy. Valentine’s Day? Chocolate at a minimum, usually a nice dinner with wine. Mother’s Day? Biggest eating out day of the year.
You wouldn’t just be giving up fuel. You’d be giving up your primary social outlet.
Obviously, my answer is no. I eat healthfully and enjoy it, and don’t really have issues with keeping myself fit. I have no incentive to give up the pleasure that food brings, and I’m not just talking about taste.
I think people are undervaluing how interrelated food and health can be and the changing conditions of aging. You may be in decent enough shape now and managing your diet, but it becomes more and more difficult as you get older. Deviating from perfect nutriton becomes more and more likely to result in being overweight, having mobility problems, diabetes, and a whole range of diseases. You’d essentially be free of the risk of diseases related to the consumption of food, which are a huge part of the quality of life especially as you get older.
Thinking that your primary social outlet is food is weird to me. The idea that if we didn’t have food, well, we just wouldn’t even be social because we couldn’t come up with something else is weirder still. You couldn’t go to the movies with friends due to the presence of a concession stand? Ok.
While I agree with this, I’d go for it. The vast majority of the time, I’m eating alone, which means I have to cook and clean. And because I don’t want to cook and clean very much, about half the time I eat boring simple things or put off eating as long as possible. Everyday eating is a chore for me - it’s like gassing up the car.
I’d be willing to sacrifice the times I really enjoy - when I’m with my family or out with friends or just decided to treat myself - for not having to deal with the times I’m eating because I need to but it’s really interrupting me from doing something I’d enjoy more.
(And I have no problem going out with other people and not eating. I already do it at bars).
No. I’ve given up eating a lot of things because of my diabetes, but I’m not willing to give up one of life’s great pleasures. Moderation is one thing, and a good thing, but utter asceticism is for weenies. Life has to be worth living.
I AM in that transition. I’ve also already made a lifestyle of eating well and working out daily – I’ve been doing this since college so have had a lot of practice and a lot of trial and error to do it better and get it right. I prefer whole foods cooking to processed foods. I find things like your standard grocery store peanut butter revolting in taste and mouthfeel. I’m not having too many bumps, and I’m recovering just fine from the ones I do.
I’ve also already had health issues (chemo, among others) which have caused me to gain weight, and I recovered from those too – and ended up in better shape for it. (Post chemo, I got back down to my previous weight, but was 2 sizes smaller.) I’ve paid enough attention to my eating and exercise over the years that I have a pretty solid idea of how my body works in that regard. It’s not confusing and not difficult for me.
No, but in order for social events to center around something other than food, a super-majority (at least) of the population would have to be willing to give up food to produce enough incentive and social momentum to create these events. Even if you could see that happening (and I can’t), there would be a decades-long transition period. Are you going to tell me you’d enjoy a party where everyone is asking you, repeatedly, why you’re not having any pizza as much as one where you eat the pizza too? Would you enjoy sitting at Christmas dinner with the family just watching them eat? I can tell you it’s not enjoyable at all. I’m too poor to eat out, so in a lot of cases if I want to see my friends, I hang out with them at a bar/restaurant and eat/drink nothing. It SUCKS. It is most definitely less fun than being able to share food with them. I enjoy my friends enough to put up with this, but it IS putting up with it, and they don’t even make an issue of it.
Yes, I’m already on a strict low carb diet. I can’t eat socially. So yeah, I go to events with eating involved. Big deal. So I sit around and talk with my friends while they eat and I can’t stuff my face. It’s about 1 billionth of the hardship you face from chronic health problems.
I don’t know where you get the idea that I stuff my face, or that food-oriented social events require face-stuffage.
Moderation is a thing. I cook for myself most of the time, so that one night of pizza isn’t going to destroy my health.
I can’t say what it’s like for other people, but perhaps it’s because I’ve been eating/exercising this way my entire adult life (no tricks, just exercise daily and a wide variety of whole foods and very very little processed stuff), rather than trying to do it all in the last few years. So, I have no accumulated health issues, and so my answer remains the same – I wouldn’t give up food. It’s as much if not more social to me than it is taste or fuel.
Would I desire to eat?
Not physically, you wouldn’t get feelings of hunger or physical feelings of cravings. You might still get psychological cravings “Oh man, I remember ice cream”, but it would be entirely in your mind rather than physiological.
I’d do it. Part of my weight problem is that some foods taste so damn good, that I overeat them. I’d be much better off if I could stop eating entirely. And I’d save lots of money too.
Like sex.
You just don’t want to have to change your user name. 