Third world countries don't have the luxury to consider healthy diet

I belong to a third word country and street children here doesn't even eat clean meal because they got it from the left overs which was thrown in the garbage by restaurant owners. They gather all the left overs that they could get, and they would eat it right away or sometimes, they would be lucky enough if they have their own mothers to cook it again for them. For others who are more fortunate, they would have rice with dried fish or sardines. There are only few families, wealthy and politicians, who have choices for food.

Yes, when we have a wide selection of food to choose from, we'll start to be picky. In developing countries, most of them will not have the time to think of what food they want to eat. I think most of them will be very happy if they can find extra food on the table. Whatever the food is. However, from developed countries, we should be 'ashamed' of ourselves because we tend to waste food a lot. The root nature of food to to fill our stomachs so we can sustain our lives. THere are definitely many difference between people. All of us are human beings, but one is picky and waste food where the other have to wait for food and they will be very happy if they are able to find food!

I visited Sumatra in Indonesia and on the way down from Singapore I went to a very poor place. I saw food cooked on the streets and it was a choice of rice or noodles. I looked around for some fresh fruit or vegetables but didn't find any. At best I came across some dry biscuits. I was happy that I still had some food I had brought over from Australia. In Sumatra I noticed people ate pancakes and I got many passion fruit to eat. In the port at Medan the high speed ferry was late. So I chose to eat the salad they offered. I had been temped due to having had a lack of vegetables whilst in Sumatra. I got very ill with sickness and a high fever that lasted one week. I took my disabled son when he was 3 years old my my daughter when she was around 18 months old to Colombia. Whilst in Cartagena De Indias they both kept vomiting it made me stay extra time there until they were better. Funnily enough in country like New Zealand where they have lovely fruit and vegetables they export it abroad. I had lovely fruit and vegetables in Samoa because that is where they had been shipped in for. Poor people can't afford expensive food in poor countries. They want to keep alive and some suffer a lot of hunger.

From what I have seen in these discussions, it's the Americans that have the most health problems. In many ways, the USA is a third world country! Those people elsewhere generally have a better diet, even if the quantity of food is less. They tend to eat fresh food that has not been industrially processed or having additional chemicals and preservatives. If you eat correctly, there isn't a problem with too much fat, etc. It is only in a famine or emergency situation where food shortage really effects the health of people. That can happen in the developed world too!

I agree with you, healthy food becomes more and more expensive by the day. Besides, I think it's quite natural, humans ate fat and sweets from the earliest times, to survive, but unfortunately, now such foods are all heavily processed and contain a lot of unhealthy ingredients. When I was younger and lived alone, healthy food was the first thing cut out of my budget. I could live on potato chips for weeks. Now that I have a family to feed, I've become way more conscious about what goes on my plate. (Though I can still go a couple of days exclusively on ice cream )

Me and my not so rich friends have always joked about diet and healthy food choices. When one can't afford three whole meals a day you'd expect they'd be thin and all, right? Apparently I was wrong. Now, people do tend to get obese because the most affordable food are super unhealthy. In my own experience as a student, I rely on packaged noodles almost always to get through the day. I have friends who eat junk food together with rice as viand. Salty junk food. Somehow artificial flavoring's sales must be skyrocketing. A lot of people can't afford real spices and meats so they'd buy a 2-peso packet of artificial flavoring. PEople from the provinces are luckier though, they can grow vegetables on their backyard.