The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat? • Hacker News Board

Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?

#81

Post by bonestamp2 » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 8:49 PM UTC

ixtli wrote: post #44

finaliteration wrote: post #34

My 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.

Same story here too. It took me a long time to untrain myself from clearing my plate, so we try not to let our kids think that the quantity of food available should affect how much food they eat. It sounds so obvious when it's phrased that way.

Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?

#82

Post by DoreenMichele » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 8:50 PM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #4

At 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.

My dad grew up in The Great Depression, so waste was strongly eschewed. Like you, I do my best to put as much on my plate as I think I will actually eat.

But I was never told to clean my plate. I don't practice that philosophy.

I have a serious medical condition. The mental freedom to just say no to some of the food on my plate has played a critical role in my ability to manage my condition with diet and lifestyle.

I'm fine with finding ways to discourage waste. But I'm very much against the "clean your plate" policy.

Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?

#83

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 8:53 PM UTC

option_greek wrote: post #79

I never really understood why one shouldn't waste food. On other hand there are several reasons why one might waste a bit of it (may be it wasn't as tasty as expected/you overestimated your hunger). It's not like food prices fluctuate based on everyone wasting certain portion of food. Global food prices are usually dependent on the supply side more than demand side.

[deleted]

Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?

#84

Post by Nasrudith » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 8:53 PM UTC

marcosdumay wrote: post #47

sixstringtheory wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I believe part of that is that usually the bulk of the cost of food is the labor and not the ingredients unless you have something 'extra fancy' with ingridents. If it takes as much work to make a cup of pasta as it does to make a quart or gallon of pasta.

An extra serving would add more labor as the expensive part and not save anything. The way to avoid that would be to keep a fresh surplus in the kitchen which would get wasted anyway.

Essentially it would unfortunately amount to 'efficiency theater' without very large assumption changes - sodas for instance have free refills because it is already a massive profit margin due to the sticky price-point where everyone expects it to be a dollar something while the actual cost is measured in pennies. You would die of water intoxication before they would realize a loss from refills.

Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?

#85

Post by usrusr » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 8:54 PM UTC

PunchTornado wrote: post #23

sixstringtheory wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I always feel bad when asking to pack the leftovers at the restaurant. is it rude or a sign of being poor? I'm unsure.

> Is it rude or a sign of being poor?

Thinking about wether or not it is a sign of being poor is a sign of being poor. What would Scrooge McDuck do?

Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?

#86

Post by Nasrudith » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 8:57 PM UTC

johnisgood wrote: post #27

sethammons wrote: post #2

Mom: "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.

> "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…

It is authoritarian parenting - it isn't supposed to make sense it is done because it is done or else the consequences.

Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?

#87

Post by saagarjha » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 8:57 PM UTC

tapland wrote: post #80

saagarjha wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, the my parents were the ones serving me for the majority of my childhood. I guess they had already internalized this rule and knew how much food I needed ;) At restaurants, we would usually skimp on appetizers and other “fluff” before the main course, which I have found makes the total amount of food not overly large.

Tbh your post reads as 'I avoided overeating by me learning how much I needed to eat and me never putting extra on the plate' In reality I guess you had unusual parents who were good at telling how much you needed, so you didn't avoid this problem in any way at all, you were just not subject to it.

I need to serve myself now, so I still think the suggestion applies?

Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?

#88

Post by saagarjha » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 9:01 PM UTC

DoreenMichele wrote: post #82

saagarjha wrote: post #4

At 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.

My dad grew up in The Great Depression, so waste was strongly eschewed. Like you, I do my best to put as much on my plate as I think I will actually eat. But I was never told to clean my plate. I don't practice that philosophy. I have a serious medical condition. The mental freedom to just say no to some of the food on my plate has played a critical role in my ability to manage my condition with diet and lifestyle. I…

I mean, I was never 100% on cleaning my plate; exceptions were sometimes made if I was sick or there was some other reason that eating everything was a bad idea. The goal was to minimize waste, even if the food was slightly unpleasant; but it’s not like this was militantly enforced. Really, just do whatever is best for you to reduce waste and stay healthy.

Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?

#89

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 9:02 PM UTC

option_greek wrote: post #79

I never really understood why one shouldn't waste food. On other hand there are several reasons why one might waste a bit of it (may be it wasn't as tasty as expected/you overestimated your hunger). It's not like food prices fluctuate based on everyone wasting certain portion of food. Global food prices are usually dependent on the supply side more than demand side.

[deleted]

Re: The ‘clean plate’ mentality drives us to overeat?

#90

Post by GordonS » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 9:03 PM UTC

gumby wrote: post #26

Our household rule was "if you put it on your plate you had to finish it; if someone else put it on your plate you don't have to" (with some parental modulation such as "yes you are having some of these Brussels sprouts" or "finish the beans before you go for seconds"). Parents don't like to see food wasted (it took money to buy and time to prepare and the alternatives aren't good for kids) but these rules were also…

Do you think this could discourage kids from trying new foods, or does that come under "parental modulation", such that if you try it and don't like it, you don't have to eat it?