"EAT YOUR MEAL...there are starving children in (insert country)"

I have a distinct memory of being guilted into eating my dinners when I was a child by reason of starving children in other remote parts of the world that I would probably never come in contact with. I don't remember who exactly it was that was telling us this (I don't think it was my mother... more possibly my grandmother) but I do remember thinking how absolutely ridiculous that was- how does me not eating my food translate to starving kids in Africa not being starving anymore? I was way ahead of my time even as a 6 year old.

I know now it was probably one of those things that you say to kids to get them to shut up even if it isn't the truth, but I would think it would be a better tactic to say something like "you better eat your meal otherwise YOU will be starving". RIGHT?!


Anyway, the point of this randomness is that I remember sitting at the dinner table when I was a kid and honestly not being hungry. I know for the sake of the sanity of every mother on the planet you have to have your kids eat the same thing all at the same time, but it just doesn't seem right to eat when you aren't hungry. I think we are all born knowing how to eat for what our body needs, and somewhere along the way we get messed up into thinking we need to eat breakfast by a certain time, lunch at noon, and dinner at 6pm.

Eating when you are not hungry equates to gaining weight...which is something us as Americans don't have any problem with right?

I have been trying to listen to my stomach more recently to tell me when I am hungry and not the clock. Sometimes I don't eat until noon or 1pm, but when I eat I am hungry. I have to admit the eat by the clock BS that's been drilled into my head by years of being in school and working in an office is hard to get over. Sometimes I find myself thinking "I should eat now it's noon"...instead of saying "I should eat now I'm hungry". So many of us are out of touch with what our body needs when it needs it because of what we were taught growing up. My goal is to get off the breakfast, lunch, dinner schedule in my head and eat when my body is telling me I'm hungry.

What were you told as a child to get you to eat your dinner?