What’s with the obsession with food?

[runoutofgoodusernames]

So many threads about:
What shall I have for dinner?
Any ideas for some healthy dinners?
Blah blah blah food!

Am I the only person alive that really doesn’t care about food? I eat some kind of cereal/ yogurt combo for breakfast, sometimes forget lunch, whoops, and don’t even think about dinner other than ‘mmm bit peckish, what’s in the freezer?!’

Is this a ‘thing’ or am I abnormal? The world seems obsessed with food doesn’t it? I just eat to not die basically, what am I missing?

You're just not like other girls.

😅

I don't get why people are so angered by your OP.

'It's not rocket science'

'A grown adult bla bla'

'What do you give headspace to? Are you writing your great novel now?'

I mean like angry and rude.

I guess it is a thread on AIBU where the traditional response has to be angry and rude.

I don’t care about food either, and often feel abnormal because of it. It’s not a popular way to be - as you can see from this thread 🤣

If someone would invent a pill or something I could just take instead of having to eat , I’d be quite happy.

I do love my tea and coffee, though.

It's well known fact some people enjoy food and some aee it as fuel and that's it.
For aome it's even essentially a hobby with testing new things etc.
Like some people enjoy buying new fashion and aome are like "00' are my jam anything after is bit too much" 😁

I wish I was like that. I’m always thinking about food. Currently on a diet as gained around 8/9lbs over spring and summer. I go out for a lot of meals with friends. I don’t always have a big dinner if at home as I only cook for myself now, teenage DD cooks her own food by choice and DS at Uni. So I often have something small but I love food and love eating out.

Would love to get in a ‘foodie’ persons brain to see what all the fuss is about

I swapped sides for a couple of months in between having a gall bladder infection and having it removed. There was an element of nausea involved, so it probably wasn’t quite the same, but I ate only because I needed fuel and was hungry enough.

I lost a shit ton of weight, which was good, but I really missed enjoying food as it provides a lot of pleasure for me. I wish I had always been like you as I struggle with my weight still. I think what I feel is close to being an addiction. Food is filling a space that presumably I could fill with other pleasurable things, but the habits of a lifetime are hard to crack.

Not really.

It's a pretty valid response to all the MN posters who seem to struggle so much in accepting that not everyone is like them and then conclude that either they or the other people are weird.

Thinking you must be the only person in the entire world who thinks a certain way is really blinkered and self-centered.

And OP was rude concluding that everyone else must be "obsessed with food" and she doesn't understand "how they give it so much headspace" just because people post for recipes or give a few minutes thought about what they're having for tea.

It very much comes across as OP thinking she's not like all those other silly people who think about things that she thinks don't matter.

The thing I love most about Italy and France is that life is structured around food. People are always discussing what to have for lunch or dinner, they phone each other during the day to talk about ingredients needed for the evening, customers have detailed conversations with retailers about ways to cook a certain item. You'd hate it!

It's a sensuous thing. Maybe your senses are more engaged with something else? I think it's nice to get so much pleasure from something that we all do, and often share.

Food gets a lot of headspace here. Food is wonderful!

What's important to you if it's not food?

I love food. I love cooking it, I love preparing and buying and planning it.
I even started a Christmas food thread in September!
For me it's not just the eating it's knowing full well that I'll never be able to travel and experience places I'd love to go for a long time, if ever, realistically.
So I get enjoyment out of a small Asian supermarket with ingredients from places I'd love to go etc, I love watching cooking shows you youtubers from around the world show you authentic dishes their nanas cooked them.
Food is something I love to do with my family.
We're on a tight budget so I made toffee apples with my kids yesterday, today I make the weeks cereal bars with them. I want them to grow up enjoying food from cultures of people we don't know, as much as enjoying the actual eating.
I'm also a massive feeder, I love cooking for friends and family, love making DPs colleagues cakes, I don't know many people who enjoy the stress of a Christmas dinner but I love it 😂🙈

Would love to get in a ‘foodie’ persons brain to see what all the fuss is about

I'll swap with you. It will free me from the endless lists of things I want to make, the piles of recipe books all over the house (food porn!), walking around anywhere new thinking 'I want to eat there. there, there and there' and when I do eat 'there', 'I want to eat that, that, that and that', walking round a supermarket wanting to buy and try everything even though we don't need anything because we have enough food at home to feed an army for months because last time I popped into Lidl to get a few bits, I bought all the 'that looks nice' things.

Thanks, lots of very angry people on here!

If I could take a pill that meant I didn’t have to eat, I probably would. I give headspace to plenty of things that don’t involve food, mainly writing my next novel 😉

f I could take a pill that meant I didn’t have to eat, I probably would.

I definitely would. Over and done with in a few seconds. Sounds ideal.

Yes it's unusual, but some people are like that. I figure that most people are a bit obsessed in one way or another with pretty much all of the things that are vital for human life. If you think about it, we have embellished and almost fetishised all of them - our homes (much more than just necessary shelter against the elements), sex (not just for procreation), drink (not just for hydration) and food. It's not that surprising though. We have a survival-related inbuilt, very strong interest in those things, so we have prioritised them.

For me food and the sharing in eating the food together is one of the ultimate pleasures of life. One of the things that gives life true meaning.
It's a part of the Danish "hygge"

I feel sorry for people who just eat for fuel as I think they miss out on most of the pleasurable parts of life.

However, I also know those of you whom are eat for fuel people thinks I'm odd for feeling sorry for then so I rarely say this outloud.

For my values in life food and the togetherness around food is in my most important aspects of life. I think that warrants quite a few threads.

I feel sorry for people who just eat for fuel as I think they miss out on most of the pleasurable parts of life.

Why feel sorry if someone finds no pleasure in it. I certainly don't feel I am missing out on anything pleasurable at all.

I only ask myself 'what's in the freezer' when all other nice tasty healthy like options are out of stock in my kitchen eg when I desperately need to shop. Unless I have batch cooked and frozen things, freezer options are generally ultra processed beige stuff. I am normally contemplating what I can make for dinner either the day before or on the bus home and keep in lots of ingredients for my favourite meals. I can't imagine eating like OP and would end up living on porridge and cheese and crackers.

Most people I know really enjoy food and spend a lot of time thinking about food.

I do love food but I got a bit sick of it all of a sudden when the Observer started its Food Monthly magazine a couple of decades back. It struck me that it was like a replacement for religion.

My sister is a proper foodie - I think it's a beautiful pursuit when done the way she does it - it's a form of art. Very pure, she just adores every part of it - researching it, buying or growing it, cooking it. She is a restaurant standard chef but no interest in having to earn her living from it. I can't imagine doing food at her level.

I gave myself a year off cooking when ds left home and it was absolute heaven. I still enjoyed what I ate but most of it was very basic, fruit, coffee, tins of chickpeas or tuna, the odd scrambled egg. I'll admit to enjoying cooking more now I've had a proper break. You might change over time.

I always notice that if there is a bit of tension within our family or if someone is just in a bad mood for some reason, when we all sit around the table and tuck into a yummy home cooked meal the mood just lifts and eventually everyone ends up smiling and talking.

Sharing a meal together is a fundamental part of relationships and well being and I like showing love for people by cooking their favourite foods.

Eating good food is a pleasure and it's been an important part of any celebration for thousands of years. If I want to give my children a varied, healthy, balanced diet then I do have to give it head space.

The irony of this being you're not allowing op to have an opinion because she's a woman. If a man said 'I don't get the fuss about food', you'd never say that.

Seriously one of the most jarring phrases ever and nonsensical in this context.

DH and I are definitely foodies. We grow a lot of our own veg and fruit, we nearly always cook from scratch and got really excited when a new fishmonger opened near us!
But as others have said, people are interested in different things.

It's not about being allowed opinion. It's about: "Am I the only person alive that really doesn’t care about food? Is this a ‘thing’ or am I abnormal?" bit.

Because obviously OP isn't

I’m the same as you OP, I only eat to stay alive and have zero interest in food.