We have disagreements about expiration dates in our family. Some people feel it is important to note dates printed on food wrappers and containers and avoid eating any food that is "past its date." My body does not seem to have an "expiry" date and it is guesswork how long any of it will function, much less all of it. With or without a written or printed date, everything ages. The big three of Buddhism are aging, sickness and death.
Other people are sensitive to the issues in discussions about expiration of food, food safety and wasted food. I looked up
how much food is wasted because of dates printed on the container
In Duckduckgo and saw figures around 30% of food is tossed out unnecessarily early because of expiration dates. Of course, I might be the poor person who ignores "best by", "use by", and "sell by" dates and gets some sort of sickness because I did. There seems to be quite a bit of government regulation about the three separate phrases in red and there may be other words to mean something different.
Lynn has a common older woman problem of weight gain. It must be that the body mechanisms that help a mother eat enough to make another human inside her also contribute to her gaining weight, especially in later years. Whatever causes it, she sometimes tries a bit of fasting. I copy her sometimes and eat a small container of yogurt and a Kashi grain bar. We believe that the date on my bar this morning is meant to be read as "May 18, 2022" rather than meaning that Kashi bar was manufactured in the year 1822.
