Another solution is making smaller portions. The sizes restaurants give you are ginormous.
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The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?
41–50 of 127 posts
Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?
#42At the risk of sounding preachy, I was raised with the “clean plate” philosophy and avoided overeating by planning beforehand what I could reasonably eat, and never putting anything more on my plate. Once you get rid of the incentive at the very end to eat just a bit more, I don’t see this as being a huge problem anymore.
Right. Don’t be greedy and control how much you put on your plate so you won’t overeat or waste food.
Are Americans incapable of doing this?
Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about saving for the next day, composting or donating? As a former professional cook it burns me to see such a casual suggestion to waste food. I’ve worked for people who would weigh the food you swept up off the floor at the end of the day to illustrate waste.
For myself at least, saving food for the next day is rather difficult. Mainly because nowadays I very seldom cook food for myself, a lot of my food consumption is through ready made meals that I can just put in the oven or microwave. The packaging almost always warns that this type of food cannot be reheated so I don't save it. I think a lot of people do this. Even if I do cook for myself I am often unsure whether it…
As long as you keep the food in the fridge and heat it properly when you reheat it (so it gets boiling hot) the vast majority of food keeps for several days in the fridge.
I leave pea soup and pot currys at room temp (19-23c) for 24-48 hours before I eat them; after that they keep for several days in the fridge.
If you live in a warm climate and/or leave food uncovered all day then you're asking for problems. In those cases I wouldn't reheat them..
Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?
#44My wife’s grandparents are very much the “you aren’t leaving until you clear your plate” kind of people and it’s given her mother a lot of anxiety around food and weight. I grew up in a family of 7 where food was scarce and some nights you were lucky to get anything at all for dinner so I’m also inclined to eat way too much at each meal. Because of this (and for other reasons) we never ever make our daughter clear he…
I have exactly the same story. My grandparents gave my mother a borderline eating disorder. Happily she became a nutritionist and helps lots of people … but the depression-era trauma still affects us today.
Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?
#45Mom: "There are starving kids in China, eat all your food!". Thanks Mom; kids are still starving there, and now America is fat. --unkown comedian. I was told, as a kid, that it was rude to not eat all the food put in front of you, especially at other people's houses. Other parents would comment on how polite we children were for clearing our plates.
Speculation, but does food waste reduce food prices?
It makes absolutely no difference if you eat the extra food on your plate or if you throw it at the trash (how could it?). The only thing that changes is that one gets you fatter.
Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?
#46So either you eat yourself into a depression or you get depressed because your constant throwing away is fucking up [your ability to stay on] the planet. Such great times to be alive.
Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?
#47Another solution is making smaller portions. The sizes restaurants give you are ginormous.
Ridiculous idea to downvote. I almost never finish restaurant meals, I’ll take the second half for lunch the next day or give it to someone on the walk home. But suggesting portion control would be advocating more personal responsibility, so maybe that explains peoples’ “disagreement.” So much easier to toss in the trash, right?
> advocating more personal responsibility
It's interesting that nobody wondered people are just concerned that food would get more expensive.
Restaurants set their prices by complex rules, and if people just started some movement to reduce portion sizes on the "if you want more, you can always ask for 2" argument, with no extra change, it's almost a certainty that prices would raise.
Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?
#48My grandparents were poor Oklahoman migrants. You ate your food when you had it; you and your neighbors were close to starvation. You cooked your meat (when you had it) thououghly because it wasn't always fresh. You kept every little thing so you have something later.
These behaviors are passed down through generations, but what was adaptive is now maladaptive.
Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?
#49So either you eat yourself into a depression or you get depressed because your constant throwing away is fucking up [your ability to stay on] the planet. Such great times to be alive.
Because not putting more on your plate than you’re going to eat isn’t an option?
Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "There are starving kids in China, eat all your food!" This does not make much sense to me. If eating all your food is the only alternative to throwing food out, it is sort of OK, but even then, it does not solve the issue at all because you are the one eating all the food, not the starving kids in China. Additionally, why come up with such nonsense? This is one of the worst things you could do to your kid. You sho…
I think what they are really meaning is "There are starving kids out in the world. Be grateful you have all this food available and don't waste it."
Hmm, yes, I agree with that, but then again: if the kid's parents were to cook less, then the kid would not have had to eat it "forcefully". The only reason I assume force here is because the kid would not need any reasons to be told if s/he is hungry. It seems to me that this is a special scenario, but being grateful for the things you have is not, and should not be a special case, IMO.
I am not sure that this is how I would teach my kid to be grateful, especially because the kid might perceive it to be forced and might backfire in the future.
Anyways, we might be overthinking this. :)