"1st world problems in 3rd world country"...too much rice, not enough dairy vs growing up in post Pol Pot time

...Soeun said this phrase as he tried to eat some bread for breakfast the other day. His whole childhood he didn't have enough money to eat 3 meals of rice daily, but this week is finding he is concerned about eating too much rice.

We're going to some childbirth classes run by a European doctor. Last week we learnt about nutrition and our homework is to eat according to the food pyramid.

When the doctor looked at what we each ate for the past 7 days she advised Soeun rice shouldn't be his only carb- he should try to eat different types. Last year I was advised not to eat so much white rice as I developed some health problems. I used to eat it 3 times a day, but now as I settle back into life here I've been shopping at foreign shops buying brown bread, brown pasta, brown rice, and basmati rice so I can eat lower GI as advised.

Our childbirth teacher advised me I need to be eating more dairy. I really miss dairy products when I'm living in asia, but as they are harder to get, generally more expensive and sometimes don't taste as nice its harder to put them in my weekly diet.

Trying not to spend too much, and trying to get used to how Khmer eat I just thought thats how life is for me here. (Atm we live in the city, but if we were living away from a town it would be even harder to get and store dairy products, and if we are considering moving to a remote location maybe I should be preparing myself.)

But now maybe I'll start spending more on food? Wondering what all those millions of Khmer people do, as far as I know there is no dairy industry in Cambodia but people seemed to have survived all these 1000s of years, albeit with a lower life expectancy.

Just one of the many things we think about as a Khmer- Australian family, trying to work out how to live well. There is such a huge and deep gap between what many would consider being rich, and what I as an Aussie think of as rich, which relates to priorities and how we spend money.

Proverbs 30:8

New International Version (NIV)

    give me neither poverty nor riches,
    but give me only my daily bread.