275 Quotes by Bee Wilson

One of the reasons hunger is so hard to pin down is that it is a negative concept, an absence.

Hara hachi bu is a Confucian principle, popular in Japan since medieval times, that you should eat until you are only eight-tenths full. This principle has since been given backing by nutrition scientists who note that when we eat there is a time delay between the body receiving the food and the brain registering that we are full. When the urge comes to have a second helping, it’s worth waiting twenty minutes, and the feeling may pass.

Soup leaves us full because we believe it will.

All soup is soul food.

In pretty much every country in the world, something hot and brothy cooked in a pot and served in a bowl is viewed as uniquely nourishing. Soup places low demands on the eater. It treats you as a child, who may or may not know how to use a knife and fork. You do not have to chop, or even to chew. Soup is what our mothers gave us when we were ailing. It’s what we return to after a hard day at work, when all we want to do is curl up in a foetal position on the sofa.

It’s not birthday cake in itself that is the problem. It’s the surrounding culture of food, where sweet treats are ever-present, consumed without ceremony.

Healthy eating should not preclude the odd cake. But it’s good to be able to wait: if not for a while year, at least for an hour or two.

Feeding children is an immense responsibility.

You want to see the treat vanish and the happy face to appear and when this happens, you feel great about yourself.