In praise of - first world hunger.

Columnist

Wednesday 11 July 2012

I'M referring to First World hunger to differentiate it from Third World hunger, which is obviously an awful situation where people have no choice.

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by Robert McNeil

I'm not clear where the Second World is — presumably somewhere around the Mediterranean or Eastern Europe. Asia too, of course. I'm starting to feel out of my depth here, and think we should all waddle briskly back to the more comfortable and familiar shallows.

Ah, that's better. Now where we? Ah yes, hunger. I'm trying to make out that it's good to feel it now and again. I find myself inadvertently on a diet. I started drinking fruit and veg smoothies ("green smoothies") for health and found that, substituting these for a more traditional lunch, the weight fell off me: about nine pounds in 12 days.As the weight fell off, the more enthusiastic I got. I don't deny myself, eating one square of dark chocolate and a small packet of toffee popcorn every evening when I'm watching The Waltons.But I can't deny that I feel hungry by late afternoon. And, you know what, it ain't that bad. I even got to like it, and reflected on the fact that, most of the time in the First World, we never feel it at all, or at least hardly a minute of it from one year to the next.Yet it must have been a natural facet of much of human history. The feeling reminded me in some ways of being a kid. Not that we went particularly hungry, but meal times were out of our hands and we couldn't just have food when we were peckish.I've even come to suspect that perhaps hunger feeds the imagination. One morning, I awoke hungry and the words poured forth. Alas, they were all about pies and bacon.

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Food and drink

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In praise of - first world hunger.

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