Finish what's on your plate...!

You’ve had it said to you on countless occasions. You may even have used these words with your family and friends.

Clear your plate!

Don’t let it go to waste!

Think of the all starving children in the world!

We have been trained over many years, both as children and as adults, to eat all the food that is placed in front of us. We have been told repeatedly, often by the people we trust most, that it is good for us.

But times have changed and so must we. The threat to our health in the 21st century “Western” countries is no longer from shortage of food but from excess food.

Scientific studies show how we’ve been conditioned

Two interesting experiments highlight the “finish what’s on your plate” mentality we all can suffer from.
The more food that is put in front of us the more we will eat...

In the first study a group of students was split into two. Both were served lunches at their college canteen over a period of several days. But one group was given consistently larger portion sizes than the other. Both groups routinely finished off all the food on their plates.

The interesting part was that the students recorded their feeling of hunger or satiety after each meal. Even though the two groups had been eating different amounts of food the results showed no difference in how they felt afterwards. The group who had eaten less felt just as full up and satisfied as the group who had eaten larger portions.

What conclusion could be drawn from that? Simply that the group with the larger serving size had eaten the extra food for no other reason than to clear their plates.

The second study showed very similar behaviour. This time participants sat together at the cafeteria table which had already been laid with bowls of tomato soup.

Unknown to them 2 of the 4 bowls had been modified. Each of those bowls had a small hole in its base and a pipe had been connected to it which went down through the table top to a reservoir of fresh soup concealed underneath.

As the volunteers consumed their lunch, new soup was gently pumped back into their bowl from beneath.

The people with normal bowls enjoyed their soup (but underestimated how many calories they had eaten). Those with the modified, never-ending bowls also enjoyed their soup so much that they consumed a whopping 73% more than the others. When asked to estimate how full they felt they gave the same result as the control group, who had eaten much less.

Interestingly neither the sex nor the BMI of those who overate had any significant influence – suggesting that the behaviour was not social or habitual. They were just average people who kept eating because they hadn’t reached the bottom of the bowl.

The conclusion again is simple. We do eat with our eyes too. The more food that is put in front of us the more we will eat, no matter whether we’ve had enough or not.

Try your own experiment to see this in action

Why not try an experiment of your own which will be just as interesting as the ones done at American universities? Cook up a one dish meal – such as shepherd’s pie or pasta bake – for a group of family or friends on TWO separate occasions.

One the first occasion place the meal in its dish in the centre of the table with a serving spoon. Plate up food for everyone leaving about one third of the food still in the cooking dish. Let everyone helps themselves to seconds.

On the second occasion plate up the same initial portions for everyone, again leaving a third intact, but this time put the cooking dish back in the oven or leave it somewhere away from the table and out of sight. This time just ask if anyone wants some more, but don’t bring the dish to the table.

On which occasion do you think the whole dish is more likely to be finished?

Both times the same amount of food is available to the same people in very similar circumstances. But by placing the food in the centre of the table we maximise the social pressures to eat rather than the biological need to eat. They still exist in the second scenario but not quite as strongly.

Politeness and conformity to the old “waste not, want not” habit will ensure that most people take a second portion (assuming you’re not a terrible cook) when the unfinished food is in full view and cannot be ignored.

So what can we do about this?
You are giving yourself the choice of whether to finish your plate or not.

This behaviour pattern makes a lot of sense if you don’t know where your next meal is coming from. The excess food is digested and metabolised into fat stores for later. But that is usually undesirable nowadays. So what should we do?

Well there are two options for us; learn to leave food uneaten and manage our serving sizes more closely. And it’s best to implement both together.

Leave some food on your plate

This sounds much, much easier than it is in real life. It takes time and concentration to build a new habit. And we’ve had so many years of learning and perfecting the old habit of clearing our plates. But that’s not even the hardest part.
Stop eating when you’ve had enough!

Imagine sitting at a friend’s dinner table. Imagine enjoying the wonderful food that they have painstakingly prepared for you. And then imagine not finishing it...!

“Really, the food’s delicious but I just can’t eat another thing,” you say, just before desert arrives. You’ll definitely have to explain yourself or risk causing offense.

Or picture yourself in a restaurant. You’ve worked hard to earn the money to pay for this meal. Are you really going to leave some untouched on your plate? What will you think when the waiter pulls a face at your unfinished meal (more social pressure to conform to the old habit).

So perhaps it’s best to start changing this habitual behaviour at home and on your lunch break – will you really make yourself sandwiches and then not eat some?

But it will be a fascinating experience. Make sure that you pay attention to what others are saying and doing around meal times. Do others trot out the old mantras about eating up?

Do friends, family and colleagues battle their way to the end of the meal and then sit back and declared themselves “Stuffed”?

Will anyone go one stage further and lean over to your untouched food; “Are you going to finish that piece of salmon? Can’t see it going to waste, can we?. Pass it over here.”

Remember what you are trying to achieve with this new habit. You are not setting out to deliberately waste food. You are just redressing the balance so that you control your food consumption, not the prevailing social norm. You are giving yourself the choice of whether to finish your plate or not.

Control the portion size more closely

For some people that feeling of being “stuffed” from over eating is normal. It is experienced every day, sometimes more than once. It is another habit which needs to be broken.

Our bodies work best when they are fed small portions more regularly (read more). Nobody should let themselves bounce through the day from extremes of feeling very hungry because they’ve skipped meals to feeling bloated after eating or drinking too much.

Don’t be tempted to use meal times as opportunities to stock up, just in case you might get hungry later. If you are reading this then you live in a society which does not suffer from food shortages. Train yourself to serve and eat smaller food portions in the knowledge that you can always get something more later if you find yourself becoming hungry.

Time to change that tired old tune...

And finally, make sure you don’t catch yourself repeating the tired old mantra to the next generation:

“Finish what’s on your plate!”

Better to start a new one:

“Stop eating when you’ve had enough!”