What it Means to Eat

It’s been almost a month since I’ve arrived in Southeast Asia and I’ve lost a significant amount of weight. This heavily attributes to sickness, food poisoning, and the lifestyle changes the past month.

But aside from that, I notice particular preferences in food whenever I’m in Cambodia. For one thing, I stop craving for ice cream, cookies, cakes, and chocolates. I don’t have a big sweet tooth but whenever I am in the US, I occasionally crave them. I suppose this has to do with being at home during the holidays in which sweets are in abundance. I also don’t crave alcohol, Western food, and fast food even though they do have them in abundance here.

I think there are many reasons why my cravings changed drastically. One is that I am simply happier here and don’t have to resort to eating and alcohol to satiate any dissatisfactions I have in life. Another is working with monks and seeing their strict eating habits have inspired me to be mindful and not eat in glutton, especially in front of them since they are forbidden to eat in the afternoons. To the same extent, I eat mindfully in reminder that a significant amount of people in this country are not able eat adequately on a daily basis. It just seems wrong that I am living in that sort of environment and eating lavishly. I know that by me eating less will not be a benefit anyone nor would it feed more people. But I simply am not motivated to eat in excess. 

A recent World Bank study showed that poverty rates have gone down in Cambodia but only a marginal level. One out of three children is malnourished. I notice that many children are way too small for their age. To make things worse, national health and nutrition standards are essentially nonexistent.

Living in the US or Japan, I had never thought of hunger. I was always rather full from the abundance of food, including junk food, fast food, and desserts. No matter how low on cash I was at the end of the month, I never had to seriously worry about where my next meal will come from. I dined at lavish restaurants for client dinners and every Friday night was a bacchanalia. Living in Japan, I was picky with food quality and service it offered (Japanese people regard food very highly so having good quality food is part of life and culture). Of course I am not going to feel guilty about my past life style.  Rather in hindsight, it makes me realize how grateful I have been for being able live a life of never having had to worry about food. 

 

One out of eight in this world is not able to eat adequately, many of them children. It reminded me of Stanley Ka Dabba, an Indian film I saw the other day. It’s about an Indian school boy in Mumbai who is not able to bring lunch to school which you will see why towards the end of the movie. Contrary to the rather dark context of the movie, it’s actually a comedy, and also highlights the diverse food culture of India. This is not your typical Bollywood movie so it will not have any dancing or dramatic climax of events with a tragic ending. But it's a cute story, I highly recommend it. At the same time it will make you rethink about the many children in the world that face hunger everyday.