There are many proverbs around the world about eating well. There are other proverbs about making sure you eat when you have the chance. For example, I grew up with the saying, "Eat your food! People are starving in China."
Monique sent some French and Spanish proverbs about eating when you can. She wrote…
"About food sayings in France, we too were told, ‘Il y a des petits en Afrique qui meurent de faim.’ (There are little ones in Africa dying of starvation.)
There’s also, ‘Mange! Tu sais pas qui te mangera!’ (Eat! You don’t know who will eat you!)
Some Spanish proverbs are ‘Vale más pan duro que ninguno’ (Hard bread is better than none) or ‘Al hambre no hay pan duro’ (When you’re hungry, no bread is stale) or ‘Oveja que bala, bocado que pierde’ (A bleating sheep loses a mouthful.)"
Feel free to share any food sayings or proverbs you know in the comments below.
Mama Lisa
Monique Palomares works with me on the French and Spanish versions of Mama Lisa’s World.
This article was posted on Sunday, November 22nd, 2015 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Countries & Cultures, English, Food Wisdom, France, French, French Proverbs, Languages, Proverbs, Spain, Spanish, Spanish Proverbs, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
2 Responses to “Proverbs about Eating Your Food”
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August 7th, 2016 at 8:41 pm
Abuelita would always say to us:
Si tu no comes, te comera el cucuy. (If you don’t eat, then the boogieman will eat you instead.)
Es un pecado desperdiciar comida. (It’s a sin to waste food.)
Lo que no quiera Pedro o Juan, aqui hay boca de Holan (Roughly translated: “Whatever Peter or John won’t have, there’s always someone else who will eat it gladly.” Usually this was the last chance anyone got to reclaim food they’d previously said they didn’t want on their plates before it was given away for good.)
August 9th, 2016 at 3:29 am
Thanks for sharing!