Opportunity vs Choice...

[gratefuldeb67]

Hey all! I just felt like writing a quick compliment to Reinhard about the phrase "Opportunistic Eating".....
I really don't know if I have ever heard anyone use that before...
I've heard "Noshing", "Grazing", "Snacking" etc...
It's funny, but there's something very cool about using that word, and I like it... There are so many opportunities to eat lurking around 24/7, but when we *choose* to eat, it is such a different and more empowering experience...
I wonder if you could even TM the phrase "opportunistic eating", as I'm sure I've never heard it within a food plan/diet thingy setting...
Well it helps me! Even when I'm very hungry, I wouldn't cave in and eat something I really don't want to eat, just cause it's there.... I can wait.
Have a lovely day!
Love,
Deb

[ClickBeetle]

This is where the Slow Food approach can be very helpful ... food is just "there" only in two circumstances: (1) one keeps bags of snack foods and convenience foods around or (2) someone spent some time making food from a recipe.

In the case of (1), an unlimited supply of snack/convenience stuff can always be at hand if one comes home from the store with it often enough. All that's necessary is to put your hand in that krinkly bag .. over .. and over .. and over ...

In the case of (2), opportunistic eating becomes much less attractive. "Don't eat all those cookies I just baked! Save some for the cookie jar!" ... or "Well, I can't have that pot roast right now, the leftovers are being saved for dinner tonihgt, I don't want to have to cook again so soon."

Also in the case of (2), the food is likely to be vastly healthier, as it's been made at least partly from scratch. And it's hard to keep fried things fresh beyond when they were just made.

[reinhard]

Thanks for the compliment, Deb! Alas, I don't seem to have invented the phrase "opportunistic eating."

from JOURNAL of ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH

http://www.unm.edu/~jar/v56n4.html

"Thus, the opportunistic eating of uncooked carrion or even unusually large quantities of fresh-killed meat by nonhuman primates or humans is likely to result in gastrointestinal illness."

I do seem to be the first to have used it in a self-help context, however.

"Noshing", "Grazing", "Snacking" are too darn cute and positive sounding to take seriously as problems. "Opportunistic eating" sounds both impressively scientific and morally reprehensible -- just what we need to keep us in line. And there's also, as you point out, the relation/contrast to choice: we're being opportunistic when we let opportunities run us.