To not understand people who don't love food

[pastabest]

We had left over jersey royals from our tea tonight. And I overcooked (significantly) the marmalade ham I was making but it's created an amazing shredded ham thing when I've gone to try and slice it.

As I shredded the ham into an enamel tin to put in the fridge alongside the Jersey royals I was imagining all the delicious lunches I could make with them if I was WFH tomorrow.

We've got coleslaw, spicy beetroot salad, boiled eggs, lots of nice pickled stuff, a wide variety of salad stuff, houmous, all the cheeses etc and a massive herb garden. My mouth is drooling thinking about the possibilities.

Suggested to to DP who is at home tomorrow that he could have it if he wanted but if not I had plans for it for tea.

He looked at me like I was mad and said 'I'll probably just have a cheese sandwich and a packet of crisps like always'.

He is a food is fuel person and I just don't get it. I'm going to be going to sleep tonight dreaming of pulled ham hock with rosemary and garlic fried potatoes with a peashoot salad, a scattering of spicy beetroot and dollops of whipped feta covered in fresh chives , cherry tomatoes and cucumber with a sprinkling of seasalt and a nice zesty lemon based dressing of some sort.

I look in the fridge and I see endless possibilities, he looks in the fridge and finds the quickest and simplest route to being fed - enjoyment optional.

No they aren’t joyless drones, god this is so rude!

Food is fuel’ types are joyless drones.

You really meant to be that rude, didn't you?

Can people love food without listing every ingredient in every dish they've ever eaten? It's tedious.

Strange thing to say.

Maybe we find more interesting stuff to talk about.

It's important to understand that often people like different things to you and that is fine. It's part of growing up.

The world would be a pretty boring place if we all liked the same stuff.

Oh Do jog on! I find joy in other places. I like a nice meal as much as the next person I just don’t think about food all day. News alert, not everyone is like you. That doesn’t make them better or worse.

Food can be a sensitive thing for some people and a major issue.

I have issues around food.

Over my life, I have either loved it (too much!) or I have felt disgusted by it (anorexia). Food is a ways to control peoples lives in some instances.

I am still trying to find that balance, even now.

Also, since the cost of living crisis, food shopping and organising/planning meals does not bring much joy any more when you can no longer buy what you want, rather what you need.

I used to love food and kind of still do. But have on and off digestive issues for a while now which sometimes makes eating hard if I don't want to feel ill afterwards. A while ago I had a couple of months where I could barely eat enough to keep me going through the day and lost a lot of weight, the smell of other people's food made me feel sick. So I guess I can understand both sides of it now 🤣

We’re all different, thank goodness

Maybe other things bring them joy 🤣 saves them obesity and health issues I guess

I do really love food. A lot.

But I do find it off putting when people use over-effusive language about their own appetites and the food they “fancy” etc. Maybe your DH is the same?

I cant think of anything worse than eating. Its my least favourite time of any day. Id rather be hungry than even make a slice of toast. Ive always been like this and so has my dad. I get to dinner time and just think well i dont know what i want, i dont fancy anything so i just wont eat. My mum would ask about 4/5 what we wanted for dinner and me and my dad would make her crazy cos we just never knew.

Oh wow , me too. I couldn’t eat beetroot or tomatoes to this day if that was the only food left on the planet. Bad memories.
Although I’ve gone the other way and comfort eat so am overweight, I just can’t seem to stop myself.

nope....they just enjoy other sensory experiences.

2 slices of white bread, buttered, bag of crisps as filling.
How happy am I

Poncey salad?

Nah. I'd rather have beans on toast.

Edited to add, in the past I've done the toast and eaten the beans cold, straight from the tin.

I’m like you as well
but I find it so hard to lose weight as food is so amazing

i I must say I’m also a fabulous cook making food from scratch and ‘layering’ flavours

Your food sounds amazing

My Mum always said there are two types of people; people who live to eat and people who eat to live. I am the latter, my husband is the former. I marvel at the amount he puts away and I was never overweight til I met him. I am however a junk food addict who hates cooking. I can happily go without if there is nothing in the house I want to eat that doesn't require cooking. Diets are impossible cos i get to a point where i would rather not eat than have [insert food item] again. I am notorious for skipping dinner cos I would rather sleep. The amount of times my husband has lovingly crafted a nice meal and i haven't wanted/enjoyed it but ate it anyway to please him.

I’m with you,OP, and get great pleasure out of planning and eating meals. I like them to be healthy, too: food is medicine.
I am a great Dr Rupy fan.

I admire people that like to cook. I don’t have the patience nor do I fancy the clean up operation afterwards. I do quite like to bake though - usually one mixing bowl and no simultaneous pots boiling etc.

However, I can’t bear people that call themselves “foodies” when actually what they mean is “I like to go to restaurants”, because the chef there has the passion and the craft. You’re just eating. It’s not a hobby or a skill to use OpenTable and masticate!

For me, food is work, planning, cleaning, hassle, over and over again every single day until we die.
Don’t get me wrong, if nice food manifested and cleaned up after itself without any input from me, I’d absolutely love that! But it doesn’t and I CBA and I have other (joyful 🙄) stuff to do 🤷‍♀️

I enjoy food. I just don’t feel the need to wang on all the time about how my love of food represents all the ways I’m a healthier more balanced human being and probably a better lover than someone who is a bit too busy to fuck about making shredded ham in the middle of the working day.

I absolutely love food. Think about it all the time. The people I know who aren't like that are far from joyless drones though. That's a really fucking weird and deliberately unpleasant take. They just enjoy other stuff, that's all.

I actually think it's a really fucking horrible thing to say when so many people who dislike food and eating have opened up about the trauma they suffered which led to them feeling like that.

Thank you! See, it is possible for people to have different likes and dislikes and priorities and experiences without it reflecting on their moral character or worth as human beings.

I would actually say that my love of food makes me more of a pain in the arse than those that don't love it. I have to work really hard not to turn into a whiny baby if it looks like a mealtime might be delayed. If we're making plans I have to make sure that food is accounted for somewhere along the lines. I'd struggle to just head off for a spontaneous trip if I knew it might run over lunchtime.

So is this what people mean by "food noise"? Thinking about their next meal etc?

I'd be interested to know what those who think about food all the time are actually thinking about! Is it the flavours they will taste? The sensation? How it makes them feel? Something it reminds them of? How they feel afterwards?

I don't think I've ever felt that way about food or drink, but I do daydream/reminisce about lying on a beach, cocktail to hand, waves lapping, nobody talking to me, drifting off to sleep. These thoughts make me very happy indeed! The memories, the prospect of the next time that will happen, the sounds and smells, the feeling of complete peace etc. Is that what it's like with food noise?