Share the cookie!

Lishia Ezra thinks the 'rich world' obese should share their food with hungry people in poorer countries. Her motto? Be slim and healthy, and help others at the same time.

Food prices have risen 83 per cent since 2005, and the world's poorest people are struggling to cope. The causes of the food crisis are complex and interlocking, but biofuel policies, high fuel prices, growing global demand, unfair world trade rules, and climate change are all playing a part.

The World Health Organization predicts there will be 700 million obese adults in the world by 2015. We all know that to stop gaining weight or even lose some, people need to either burn their fat reserves or eat 100 calories less every day (A Big Mac is about 500 calories). The option to consume less calories means you cut back on portions or skip a soda. Now, another interesting fact according to America’s Second Harvest is that if we could recover just 5% of the food wasted each year, we could help feed 14 million people.
Putting today’s food crisis and hunger in developing countries in the same frame of thought as telling a bunch of kids to share their cookies with each other may sound like an oversimplification. But looking at the facts above, some form of sharing the world food supply sounds like an interesting alternative doesn’t it?
By sharing I don’t mean direct donations in the form of food aid. We can start by not wasting what we buy. How many times do we buy a huge value meal and stop eating halfway because we feel bloated? How many times do we go to parties or ‘all you can eat’ restaurants only to throw away most of what we put onto our plates the moment we are reminded of our full figure?
People are having a hard time affording food at the moment because supply is getting scarce. If we stop wasting food, there will be more availability for those who need it most.
So, the next time someone asks for a diet tip, we can tell them: Stop wasting food. Share it.