Waiters Just Bring You Your Food; They Don't Hypnotize You Before You Eat It
I grew up in a family that believed in The Clean Plate Club -- but then I grew up, left my parents' home, and was able to rethink things. It is not a virtue to cram food into your piehole and leave a restaurant or the dinner table feeling stuffed.
I trained myself to only eat when I was hungry, even if it meant leaving a tiny piece of food on my plate. The temptation for many is to "clean" that little piece up. This makes no sense. You will not get demerits if you don't eat it. You'll just be a little slimmer over time if you don't make a habit of this.
This post was inspired by a rather hysterical item over at the HuffPo on restaurant portion sizes. I LOVE vast portions, except when we're staying at a hotel somewhere without a refrigerator. I love them because I end up eating my dinner for days, which means I can truly live my dream; as I like to joke, "I don't cook; I heat."
But, then as if people have no choice, as if they can't be told to use reason while eating, Laura Schocker's piece, "Restaurant Portion Size: Nearly All Entrees Exceed Nutrition Recommendations," sounds the food excess alarm:
A whopping 96 percent of America's chain restaurant entrees fell outside the range of the USDA's recommendations for fat, saturated fat and sodium per meal, according to a new analysis from the RAND corporation, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition."If you're eating out tonight, your chances of finding an entree that's truly healthy are painfully low," lead researcher Helen Wu, assistant policy analyst at RAND, told USA Today.
Wu and her team evaluated 28,433 regular menu items and 1,833 children's menus at 245 restaurants around the country between February and May 2010. They looked at the USDA recommendations for daily maximum intake in calories, fat, saturated fat and sodium and divided that by three to arrive at a government recommendation for a single meal. And while the majority of dishes fell below the USDA's calorie limit for a meal (667 calories), they did not meet the requirements for fat, saturated fat and sodium (which, according to the government regulations, should not exceed 767 mg per meal).
Per Gary Taubes, it's the government's "health" recommendations that have led people to eat the diet that chubs them up and makes them diabetic -- the high-carb, lowfat diet.
As I discussed with Dr. Roy Baumeister on my radio show, you can pre-think your way out of your tendency to hoover up more food than you need to eat at a sitting, and rethink and rehabituate yourself into healthier behavior.
The more you repeat an action, the more it becomes part of what I call your personal culture -- to the point where you can stop thinking about it because it's just how you behave.
I was never in the clean plate club. My mother always told me that no matter how hungry I am, a lady never eats all the food on her plate. She always has to leave at least a bite. Often we would have one scoop of icecream for desert and mom would check to make sure that we left some. I guess the idea was to learn self-control.
Jen at May 24, 2012 4:59 AM
Clean Plate Club magna cum laude...d'oh!
cbc at May 24, 2012 5:40 AM
I love massive meals, I get leftovers. How dare her try to eliminate that!
momof4 at May 24, 2012 5:50 AM
Momof4 is so right.
My brother, sister and I ate better than anyone in the neighborhood and we were one of the poorest. Mom's Sunday dinners lasted us most of the week. Kids at school always wanted to trade me treats for my ham, roast beef or chicken (rabbit and lamb and sometimes fried cold spam) sandwiches.
Dave B at May 24, 2012 7:29 AM
I was never in the clean plate club. My mother always told me that no matter how hungry I am, a lady never eats all the food on her plate. She always has to leave at least a bite. Often we would have one scoop of icecream for desert and mom would check to make sure that we left some. I guess the idea was to learn self-control.
Posted by: Jen at May 24, 2012 4:59 AM
__________________________________
Miss Manners has officially rescinded that rule, even if Gelett Burgess, the author of "The Goops," never did. (Granted, MM is alive and the latter is not.)
Quote: "Time was when it was considered polite to leave some food on the plate — 'for Miss Manners,' as children used to be instructed. Well — ugh. Miss Manners got tired of eating the leftovers of revolting children, and the style became 'joining the Clean Plate Club.' "
(end)
I don't eat out in general.
As I've mentioned before, when at home, there is NO reason for a parent's "clean-your-plate" rule to lead to child obesity, so long as the parent is smart enough to put only tiny portions on the plate. Not to mention that if you put only one tablespoon of each dish, including vegetables, on the plate, and then say "no seconds until you eat everything" that way you won't be making the kid focus on the dreaded vegetables so much, and if the kid goes to bed hungry, tough.
After all, if it's OK for poor parents to order their kids not to waste food, why can't not-so-poor parents do that?
lenona at May 24, 2012 7:31 AM
In college I waited tables at an Applebee's. We got half off of one meal per shift. I'd order one of the bigger plates (like a sirloin or smothered chicken breast), and add on a salad. Then I'd eat half of everything and take the rest home for dinner later. It's the reason I didn't drop below 100 pounds that summer.
I guess Wu and Shocker would prefer that I only eat ramen noodles.
We take food home all the time from restaurants. We even order an extra entree or appetizer sometimes just to take home for later.
...Talk about a prosperous civilization problem... Oh no! An overabundance of cheap food!
ahw at May 24, 2012 7:40 AM
The biggest problem with the report is precious little of the USDA recommendations are based on peer reviewed, double-blind studies. The levels of fat, saturated fat and sodium are entirely made up. (Even most of those vitamin levels are made up.)
Joe at May 24, 2012 7:42 AM
An aside: A friend of mine once told me that when he was courting his wife (a lovely Cuban woman), he went to her parents' house for dinner. The way he was brought up was to eat everything he was served to show his hosts he liked the food, which he did. In her culture, cleaning the plate meant "I'm still hungry. Give me more." It took a few helpings before he figured out he was supposed to leave a little, but by that time, he was so full he could barely make it to his car!
Old RPM Daddy at May 24, 2012 8:45 AM
I took a date to a chain Italian restaurant one day -- late for lunch early for dinner. They had a three item combo plate on the menu.
We added an extra salad and the drinks and split the combos. Both of us were pleasantly full and it came out right at $25.
Jim P. at May 24, 2012 7:05 PM
Have any of you heard about Bill Wisth:
Jim P. at May 24, 2012 10:05 PM
Apparently Bill was also sharing with a friend who hadn't paid. He's a thief.
momof4 at May 25, 2012 6:34 AM
I usually have my largest meal at lunch. I have a very small breakfast and a modest evening meal. I don't split my calories, fat and salt consumption into 3 equally portioned meals. Plus I love leftovers to take home and eat later. I don't need anyone telling me how much of what food I should eat when. Truly.
LauraGr at May 27, 2012 7:37 AM
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