Bread crumbs, peels...

As I was having bread for breakfast today, I was reminded of what my mother used to say - dont waste the crumbs, they have more nutrition. Is it true? Similarly even when my mother used to cut apple, she used to mention the same that they have lot of nutrition value. I am not a 'nutrition expert' but I wonder if there is an 'underlying' attitude - good or bad. I am reminded of 'stories' long back told by many people (obviously they may not even remember that they have told me :o). One story went about differences in different 'Iyer' communities in Tamil Nadu. North Arcot Iyers are apparently always rich because they dont waste anything. After eating, their plates will look ready for eating (of course, thats an exaggeration). Similarly such attitude in found in Kerala, they apparently use everything of the plantain ('nenthiram' fruit or vegetable) including the peel, stem etc. Apparently Gujaratis have similar attitude. My sister who is currently in Porbunder told one news/story which was atleast amusing. In showrooms of Gujarat, they dont switch on all lights all the time. Lights will be on only where people are there. If you want to look at some section in showroom, they will switch on the light of that section, present what is present and then switch off :o My sister went with her Gujarati friend from Porbunder to Ahmedabad for weekend class. Her friend thought that she had forgotten to switch off the light in kitchen and apparently didnt sleep in the train :o Till next day morning, when she could confirm that lights were indeed off, she was not her normal self :o

I would think that this bread crumbs, fruit peels are another form of this attitude. One can say 'dont waste' attitude is a good thing. When I used to stay with two other classmates in Bangalore (2000-2004), I used to cook often and at the end of the dinner, we will not 'waste' anything and 'finish' whatever was cooked. Once my classmate from Chennai who had come from US to visit me in Bangalore and heard about 'not wasting' food from us, he said 'hey, your stomach is not a garbage can'. If you dont like it, throw it away. Well that is another way of looking at it. Yet another way of looking at it is to eat everything - may be, thats the closest thing that some can come to - have the cake and eat it too :)