People are often interested in the way I have my meals. They are amused to
see that I eat every item in almost equal speed: one mouth of beef, one mouth of
beans, followed by a little orange juice; after that, the whole sequence starts
over again. Through I have been doing so since I was very small, it
nevertheless, as I now see, make sense from an economic perspective.
To demonstrate why this is the case, suppose I have a limited quantity of 5
mouths of two food items to eat in a meal: meat and vegetables. Further suppose
that my reservation price for another mouth for having another mouth of each
item is as follows:
| No. of Mouths | Meat | Vegetables |
| 1 | 11 | 10 |
| 2 | 9 | 8 |
| 3 | 7 | 6 |
| 4 | 5 | 4 |
| 5 | 3 | 2 |
When I start my meal, I will eat a mouth of meat because it gives me higher
marginal benefit. Following that, I should eat a mouth of vegetables, obviously
for the same reason. It is easy to see that I will eat each item alternatively
until I finish my last mouth of vegetables. My ‘amusing’ way of eating is
just a way of maximizing my benefit from eating.