Lots of veg & salads, grilled meats & seafood, whole fat dairy products, not too much sugar, not a lot of processed food, reasonable portions aka eating till I’m sated vs. eating till I’m full.
However, the thread title is about “eating ethically while traveling,” which implies caring more about others’ health/well-being (including animals & the planet as a whole) than one’s own, not what we each consider a “healthy” diet.
Thread drift?
Hi Hunterwali,
The linked article is an interesting narrative, which, IMO, presumes one will make–or at least consider–morally sensitive decisions.
I’m merely suggesting a good starting point.
Hi Natascha,
The thread title and linked narrative started drifting from the get-go.
Made me think about an old book called “the ugly American.”
Hi damiano,
One can come into ethical challenges with a solution without understanding the dilemma. When it comes to eating, better explore one’s own solution carefully before exploring cultural alternatives.
Your own perspective sounds very reasonable to me.
Being an ugly person isn’t limited to any specific nationality. I’ve met assholes the world round.
Local assholes, travelling assholes.
While travelling, it’s nice to experience various types of regional assholery, which helps one appreciate the assholes one takes for granted back home.
Well, this is new.
Hi Natascha,
That’s where self perception comes in. There were times that the “ugly American” was me–and I didn’t even know it.
Is the self-perception kicking in when several posters reply to your comments with their backs up?
We can be guilty of seeing our posts in a way that can be different from the way others see our posts.
Hi Phoenikia,
If there weren’t alternative perspectives, we wouldn’t have anything to discuss.
I post a lot about self perception, because we all “know” more about ourselves than anything else. It’s a natural starting point.
I think a lot of us don’t know how we come across to others.
This chain went sideways fast. I’m going to try to course-correct. I find that to the extent I try to do things that conserve/protect the planet - which is my own interpretation of ethical eating, it is much harder to do when I’m traveling and eating out. The portions are generally too big, and sharing only helps if someone in your party wants what you want. So much food gets thrown away. If we have a mini fridge, then leftovers are brought home, but then there is packaging to throw away. There are rarely any compost bins, which we have at home. Sometimes, there are no recycle bins. All of this makes me a bit itchy, and then I redouble my efforts at home.
It won’t keep me from travelling though. That is too big a price to pay. And as indicated more upthread, individual people who use styrofoam boxes or straws sometimes are not the main reason that we have the climate issues or garbage management issues that we have.
I can’t imagine eating a green salad of sorts without dressing. Aside from avocado, the dressing is the best part.
Hi, Miss_belle,
I’m sure that you’re right–but I’m about as primitive as they come: no dressing on my salad; no cream or sugar in my coffee,
I just eat what I like.
Ethics and morality is so fluid and context-dependent, that if I relied on ethical norms to guide my palate, I would starve from paralysis by analysis.
No. Thank. You.
And your post made it even more off-topic. I think you made your point about eating healthy is important. No need to repeatedly go off-topic.
Hi Chem,
My point was and is that one must have a foundation in healthy eating to consider ethics–and it was implicit in the linked narrative. There was no off topic content to my post–IMO, of course.
So, ipsedixit, you’re like Buridan’s Ass?
No, I’m just an ass.
My point is be careful with your use of Must.
Hi Sasha,
I completely agree.
I’ve done much better when I’ve gone camping–but that doesn’t work on a global adventure.
In Chiang Mai, Thailand, I stayed at the same guest house that always did breakfast and lunch special for me. Made it easy. In Seoul, Korea, I had a student guide that showed me alternative menus and resultant experiences for different price ranges.
My experiences were almost like the narrative.
