Disdain for basic human things is not a great sign. Eating food and enjoying food is not primitive, it's human, it's good. We do not need to be better than human. We need to be human, we need to excel and enjoy and enhance all of the things that make us who we are.

We are not robots, we're never going to be robots.

Enjoy your food, doesn't mean you're a monkey. It doesn't mean you're primitive. You're doing what all these wonderful marvelous tools we've built for ourselves are intended to do, make your life good and give you the things you need as a person. Smile, enjoy, be happy, and don't be afraid of who you are.

And talk to a therapist if need be, for me this fear of being human came from social experiences in my early life that led me to dislike other people and be afraid of other people.

As I've grown older, however, I've changed my thoughts on it.

Food is a mechanism by which we express ourselves. It's fundamentally creative. It's a means to share our culture, and it connects us to our history. Pizza is as unique a story as bubble tea, maafe is as unique as mafongo.

A bowl of white rice is a story as rich and complex as any novel if you know how to read it. What kind of rice? Why white and not brown? Where was it cultivated? Why was it cultivated? Who? When? How?

And food is more than that. It's sense pleasure. Furthermore it's sense pleasure we can experience as a community. Food gathers us, allows us the time to connect with one another. Cooking for others is fundamentally an act of community.

To try and reduce eating to something we have to do misses the immense emotional, cultural, community, and individual value we derive from it.

Oh, buddy. You’re definitely going to be a hit in the dating scene when your first instinct is to call women boring and basic.

“Wisely reflecting, I use alms food. Not for fun. Not for pleasure. Not for beautification. Not for fattening. Only for the maintenance of this body. For keeping it healthy. For helping with the holy life. Thinking thus: I will allay hunger without overeating, so that I may continue to live blamelessly and at ease.”

trading one religion for another, huh? pinnacle of creation, pinnacle of fate, pinnacle of evolution...

maybe buddhists got it right centuries ago: shut up, eat your food and clean your bowl, that's life.

Our appetites might get in the way of a purer, intellectual life, but at least food brings people together.

It is the primary vehicle by which many sustain an otherwise meaningless existence

Regarding food specifically, I've had this same notion many times and was an early Soylent adopter as a result. I still purchase its powder and target a 25% diet of Soylent. However, I also increased food's overall influence on my life by starting a garden and trying to raise as much of my own food as possible. I'd say there's other benefits to that; far too numerous to list here. The dishes I make from garden veggies are mostly pretty boring though. One might think of this as trading experience for assurance of origin, and the various benefits thereof. Something one might want to consider if their living conditions permit.

What else does this guy have going on that's so important?

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To what end? The article seems to allude to some teleological point, without ever nailing any down.

Nothing about the tip of Maslow's Hierarchy [1] obviates the rest of the pyramid.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

And for most other parts of life, that's a legitimate position and you're allowed to opt out. Don't like musicals? Don't watch them. There are lots of things from which people derive emotional, cultural, community and individual value -- and where other people choose not to participate, and that's broadly seen as fine.

But food is in a different, much more oppressive position: I'm not allowed to opt out. I am forced to participate, to some extent by cultural forces, and more broadly by the primitive cravings of my body. And the fact that I don't have much choice about participation is a fact that I do not like.

OK, but what about the people who's enjoyment of food leads to ill health, loneliness and misery?

It's great that you can derive such pleasure from a basic human need but the abundance of cheap and readily available food has a downside too.

We just chug down a cheeseburger, one of the millions of identical cheeseburgers consumed every day. We don't care what's in the patty. We don't care how the cheese was made. It all arrives at the local McD's in sterile packages wrapped in plastic. This is not the sandwich that grandma used to make, with a touch of her secret sauce. This isn't even the junk food that your parents allowed every once in a while if you ate your veggies. We feel no connection with the person across the restaurant who is chomping on the same cheeseburger. There's no community here, nor context, only consumption.

The less we get involved in preparing our own food, the more people will naturally feel like OP.