To ask if anyone else finds food mostly uninteresting?

[JustGettingStarted]

I have a few friends and family who think and talk about food a lot. They watch cookery programs, read restaurant reviews, just generally talk about food with great enthusiasm.

I only think about food when I'm hungry. I often find myself very hungry at awkward times because I forgot to eat when it would have been convenient. When I am hungry, I definitely like my food to be tasty. It's not like I dislike food, I just don't care about it when it's not filling an immediate need.

Once I am full, I will stop eating. I leave most restaurant meals unfinished. But not always - depends on my hunger and the portion size.

One friend of mine talks about what she is planning to eat all the time. We text throughout the day and she always says things like "I need to pick up my dry cleaning on the way home and then I'm going to make a fish pie! :)" Literally every day she tells me what she's thinking of making for dinner. When we eat out together she literally scrapes her plate and then finishes my food. I don't really care because I don't want it, but it just looks odd, somehow. I can tell she's compelled to do it - she said that she simply cannot abide letting food go to waste.

My husband loves cookery programs, especially ones about American diners that specialise in something huge and ridiculous. He reads reviews of top restaurants and fantasizes about winning the lottery and where he'd eat. He talks about food in general and can become emotionally distressed if he doesn't enjoy his food.

On the subject of restaurant critics and cookery books - I'm glad there are people in the world who are passionate about food, because that means there are tasty things to eat when I'm hungry. But it does seem weird to me that there are people so into food and dining that they can make a living from it. Some cookbooks rhapsodise to the point of making my eyes roll. I just want to know how to make the roast - a paragraph about the author's visit to Tuscany and the meal they had at their friend's villa is annoying.

Am I the only person who feels this way?

My stomach is so delicate I don't enjoy food anymore. I can't have gluten, onions, garlic or so many vegetables i can't be arsed.

I'm the same. No interest at all. Would quite happily and often do eat the same meal every day. I have a severe tomato allergy very outing! which restricts what I can eat considerably so I don't really find any food very interesting!

I enjoy cooking and enjoy my food but I would never describe myself as a “foodie”. Cookery shows on TV bore the pants off me. Never watched GBBO.

Are the people who are saying its just fuel and will eat what's in front of them actually just lazy and uninspirstional at cooking? Do you know how to cook?

I was about to start poking fun at OP when she questioned why people are interested in food and then said she got excited about visiting different gyms. Then I remembered that one of my favourite activities when on holiday abroad is going to the local supermarkets and seeing the different stuff they have.

I think you are either one way or the other. My mum eats to live like you, I live to eat. I love food. I think about food. I always have to know when we'll be next eating on a day out. I read recipes, watch cookery shows. I look up menus at restaurants - we are going out for a pub lunch on Christmas Eve and I have already researched the menu and know what I'll be having (or at least narrowed it down to a couple of possible dishes!)

I also don't stop eating when stressed, in fact I eat more! I eat when I'm happy. The only time I don't eat is when I have a stomach bug.

I absolutely know how to cook. I sort of enjoy it (unless I'm exhausted and hungry) and I can make a lot of delicious things. When I was at home with small children, it was something mildly interesting to fill time. But I don't think about food unless I have to.

I absolutely love watching cooking shows. However that's where my love ends. I detest cooking & have zero interest in practice. I find it very boring and the constant need to be planning the next meal drives me bonkers. No patience I'm afraid. I'd rather do anything other than cook.

Surely you think about food in order to have the right stuff in and to plan meals to cook? So for example person making fish pie was planning ahead as she'd have to make the pie? If you just have 7 microwave meals for the week I guess you wouldnt have to think about food as you don't have to think ahead to be organised for making the meal.
Id quite like to think less about food, but its an everday chore!

Are the people who are saying its just fuel and will eat what's in front of them actually just lazy and uninspirstional at cooking? Do you know how to cook?

Cheeky fucker!
I still have a family to cook for, and am an excellent cook and baker. Lazy I am not! I just have no interest in eating what I or anyone else has made.

Obviously I think about food in terms of grocery shopping. I travel a lot so I eat in restaurants mostly. When I'm home I sometimes realise that I forgot about dinner. Nothing is thawed and I'm too tired to think about it. I just eat a sandwich or something.

I guess thats the difference - if you eat mainly in restaurants you've got the privilidge of not having to think about food or plan cooking ahead. If you can just walk into a restaurant and choose what you feel like.

I would absolutely be the same in that situation, it would be ace!!!

Haha ok!
I notice my parents talk about food alot. And as a pp said most outings were based around food when we were young.
Also, say at breakfast they will talk about what to have or where to go for lunch or dinner and i'd be like er can we get through this meal first? My husband does this too.

I'm the same! I can certainly eat (too much!), but I have no interest in food at all. I hate baking. I am not interested in cookery programmes etc... and our meals at home bore me stupid!

My mil often wants to talk food with me and (probably sensing her poor hard done by son is not being fed the glorious display she would provide!) likes to give me recipes! I dutifully listen but then chuck them in the bin. I am just not a foodie :) but then again.... maybe if I wasn't always rushing around at 3000 miles an hour and actually had time to think about preparing meals, baking etc... maybe things would be different? !

(Ps. I HATE school 'bake sales' and that kind of thing!)

Oh I'm the same. As soon as any conversation turns culinary, I just switch off. I do love food but talking about it just makes me roll my eyes and yawn.

My stomach is so delicate I don't enjoy food anymore. I can't have gluten, onions, garlic or so many vegetables i can't be arsed.

Me too, makes you just want to give up restaurants etc as its such a ball ache tryi g to find try to eat gluten free.

• such a ball ache trying to eat gluten free.

I don't like it when it all gets pretentious but for me it is one of life's pleasures...and also a source of pain as i used to have an eating disorder.
I would love to be like you op as i would be a lot slimmer!
I think it's good to have an interest in the basics of hralthy eating without being obsessive.
Greg Wallace is hilarious with his iver enthusiasm and Nigella is food porn.

I am same. I crave sweets sometimes, that's it - otherwise do not even have a favourite thing to eat.

I like food but i'm not really interested in it and I don't really enjoy cooking. I wish my meals would just magically appear in front of me. Sometimes i wish i could just take a pill to make me feel full and give me the nutrients i need 🤣 i think the obligation if cooking for a family has dulled my interest in food.

I'm generally like you OP although I really do enjoy cooking, however by the time I've finished making a meal I've lost 95% of my appetite. My DH, who barely cooks loves food much more. I have noticed anecdotally that the people in my life who cook from scratch are far slimmer than those who don't cook...

I'm on both sides. I use food as a comfort and reward but it's still, like you, there to serve an immediate purpose. I don't talk about food, think about it or enjoy making it. People who do irrationally get on my nerves. No idea why.

There are people who love food and there are people who love cooking and the craft of it all. I guess it's just an interest like any other and you only hear the people who care going on about it. The social aspect is important too. Then there's the constant work aspect of it. I love food and cooking but they way several meals a day need to be found I still find a bit much sometimes.

the only time i think about food in advance is when im in the shop buying it as in planning what we will eat this week, other than that i eat when im hungry and i open the fridge and whatever is in front of me i fancy is what i will eat at that point, in restaurants obviously i peruse the menu and eat whatever i like the look of, other than at these times i dont obsess about food

@sanityisamyth

Just tomatoes? I am most allergic to tomatoes, but have a reaction to most nightshades (peppers, potatoes, aubergines and -weirdly- tobacco)

Food is boring. Most days I'd rather just not eat because I can't be bothered to cook. Get the side-eye from my DH now though as I'm sure 5 months pregnant and he says it's not healthy.

Weirdly though, I'm fat even though I don't like food. It's just easier to stuff in a cheese sandwich crisps and chocolate to fill me up than it is to find something healthy I'm not allergic to.