I always thought foodies had to be super obsessed and obese people whose entire lives focused on their next food fix. However, over the past year some careful blog reading and introspection has taught me that being a foodie isn’t about quantity, it’s about quality. Despite living in the land of plenty, we live in a world that is obsessed with the quantity of food we can shovel into our fat little faces (and yes, I get to say fat little faces because all too often, I was the one doing the shoveling).
We’re taught at an early age that cleaning our plates (even if the food is tasteless, fat filled, junk) is a virtue and that leaving anything behind is a mortal sin. Who among us hasn’t heard about those starving children in Africa? We reward ourselves and our kids with food and then wonder why we’re all fat.
My first glimpse that food should be about quality and not quantity happened three years ago in Amsterdam where I savored perfectly ripe strawberries with two pieces of perfect chocolate. I savored that meal and it filled me up and satisfied more than any of the stomach busting trips to the buffet I’d taken in my life. That lesson came back to me over the past six months as I’ve started reading foodie blogs, shopping for fresh foods, and really taking time to savor my food instead of shovel it in.