This is a huge pet peeve of mine. Even if it's a compliment, I just don't like people commenting on what I'm eating. It feels like an invasion of privacy or something.
I agree. My choice of food shouldn't be a source of entertainment for others.
I've never had a problem with people commenting on my homemade lunch, because I always comment on their lunches too. Seems like harmless lunchtime office conversation to me. I don't know how it can get on some people's nerves. I just smile broadly and say "Yep! Made my own lunch again today. Where'd you buy yours?" and inwardly smile at how expensive their food usually is.
You know how some people comment on your clothing, etc? Well, I don't. I like food, it's an interest and a hobby of mine - what can I say? Always looking for new ideas.
Aargh- I used to sit opposite the most negative, draining woman ever. She was overweight, loudly claimed it was thyroid (nope, it's the cakes you shove into your gaping maw daily), and would critique every piece of food I brought in, looking for the unhealthy stuff, and then exclaim about the sugary/fatty parts of my lunch, and oh, aren't you lucky, wouldn't it be nice to have a metabolism like yours??? Drove me nuts. I used to put a square of chocolate in my oats each morning in lieu of sweetener, and god, she never failed to tell the whole office about my 'chocolatey' breakfast (never mind the hour I spent in the gym before work, and that it was 10grams of chocolate). She would point out my bananas and handful of nuts and smugly tell me they were way too full of sugar/fat for her, but ooh, lucky naturally skinny you, you can eat it. I wanted to smother her. Sorry, a bit OT. Coworkers.
You know what, at the risk of annoying a ton of people (because in my experience any mention of fatness or slimness bring out INTENSE emotions in people) I totally empathise with you on this.
My feelings on weight:
1. I don't care what size anyone is
2. I don't care what they eat
3. Food is tasty, it's nice to eat it. Sometimes it's nice to talk about it too.
4. BUT my own body weight, and the amount I eat, is not something to judge, loudly, infront of me. Or make jokes about.
I am naturally quite thin, which for some reason seems to be similar to wearing a sign saying 'please comment on my body in any way you wish, be as rude as you like, I'm thin so it doesn't count as rude anyway'. I have lost count of the amount of times that someone (and it has always been a woman, overweight) has commented along the lines of 'I wish I could eat the way you do', 'you don't understand how hard it is to diet', 'it'll catch up with you when you're older', 'where do you put it all', etc etc.
It makes me so angry, and here is another list for why.
1. I'm female. This is women hating on other women about their size. Just doing the work of mysogynists all by ourselves. Way to go ladies.
2. I don't comment on their bodies. And I'm not judging them for what they eat.
3. But... when they say they wish they could 'eat the way I do', sometimes I just wish I could take them up on that idea and take over their eating habits for just one week, so they have to eat everything I do. And then they might believe me that I just eat a normal amount. And do some exercise.
Sorry for derailing the thread. Rant over.