"Eat your crusts" is a pointless argument

[MaMaD1990]

Making my daughters lunch and she has started peeling the crusts off her sandwiches. I remember being told to eat my crusts when I was little and "it'll make your hair curly" encouragement yada yada. AIBU to think this is a battle not worth having if your kids don't eat crusts? Does it matter?

On the side of not wasting food, I’m pretty sure we managed food shortages only a year ago... just saying...

@Gwenhwyfar

What about alcohol? More of that probably goes out in pee than stays in the body and isn't required by the body either. Is the production and consumption of alcohol wasteful and to be banned?

You’re being oddly hostile and more than a little ridiculous. Nobody is talking about banning anything, only about being conscious of waste.

I’ll humour you though.

I want to bring my children up with the attitude to waste that when it comes to wine:

• they always recycle the bottle
• they consider prioritising a brand that uses recycled glass
• they’re keen to give a wine that’s travelled less miles a go
• if they buy a new wine and find they’re not keen, they keep it for cooking with, or offer it to a friend and don’t just tip it

I just want them to keep waste in mind. Not obsessively - I just want it to be second nature to them not to just bin something.

@Gwenhwyfar

What about alcohol? More of that probably goes out in pee than stays in the body and isn't required by the body either. Is the production and consumption of alcohol wasteful and to be banned?

Yes and yes.

Good luck getting any government to introduce that legislation!

Ds won't eat them, I can't force him. So I cut the crusts off before I make the sandwich. Less waste than him eating round the crusts.

"If you eat more than you need, that's just as wasteful isn't it?" - yes, agreed. Both are wasteful.

@emilyfrost

It’s not “wasting food” to not eat crusts They’re just crusts.

If she doesn’t want to eat them, don’t force her.

It is if you barely have enough food/money to feed yourselves.

I was convinced eating crusts would make my hair curly. It never did.

My 1950s primary school had huge metal bins for leftovers, which were collected every week by the pig swill man . I would imagine the swill from infant and primary schools was 80% crusts

Even if you have loads of money and food aplenty, it's still a waste to bin stuff without eating it.

Just like binning unworn clothes is a waste even if you are wealthy enough to afford it.

Wow, so many responses! My take away so far is...

1. Crusts on bakery style vs supermarket bread is always bakery every time (yes!)
2. It can be seen as wasteful (to all generations!) not to eat your crusts but if you don't you can always...
3. Feed them to the birds, freeze for later use, make into breadcrumbs, make into bread and butter pudding
4. Celery leaves, broccoli and cauliflower stalks are delicious in soups (I second this - they are amazing)
5. A debate about food waste in general and something about alcohol being peed out which lost me a bit, I won't lie.

Basically, I'm right not to die on a hill BUT I can make a conscious effort to feed the starving birds in my garden should my daughter continue to shun the humble crust.

Bleurgh, one of the worst things about working with children at lunchtime was dealing with the discarded crusts or watching the children peel them off 🤮
If your children don't eat them cut them off!

I love crusts but I only buy proper bread, not that stinky ready sliced stuff.

If you are fussy : Cut off crusts before making sandwich, make breadcrumbs, can be kept in freezer.

@Gwenhwyfar

What about alcohol? More of that probably goes out in pee than stays in the body and isn't required by the body either. Is the production and consumption of alcohol wasteful and to be banned?

Excess alcohol consumption is wasteful, but in agriculture alcoholic beverages are basically a method of food preservation, a way of avoiding waste. You can save the excess ables you eat through the winter by jucing them and letting the juice ferment, and then feed the pulp to your pigs which you eat later. It's very efficient. Farmers pre-industrialisation consumed a lot of their calories in beer and ale.

Same with hard liquor, it was used as a way to preserve calories in a small space for a long period of time. Historically in pretty small amounts as it was excess for current needs.

Commercial production today, like most commercial ag, is very inefficient though.

Crusts are the best bit! But I only eat bread that I’ve made myself. Crusts on “packet bread” are awful. But the crows will appreciate them.

@PissTestRightNowDaniella

Hated crusts as a child (can take or leave as an adult) so I studiously stayed away from any and all crusts.

Bastard hair was still as curly as a bastard.

Same! Bloody crusts and bloody curly hair!

I'd say stop trying for a while. Use the crusts to make breadcrumbs/freeze/feed the birds and give her crust free when she has sarnies with sliced bread.
In time try paninis and french bread to get her into the crust thing. Once she's chomping through baguette crusts she won't notice the edges on sliced bread any more!!

@Myotherusernamewastakenagain

People who don't eat crusts are weird. My OH leaves the crusts from bread, toast and even pizza. Weirdo.

My DH is a crust-dodger too (probably because he chooses to eat shitty plastic bread instead of the nice stuff I buy or make for the rest of us 🤔). Bigger bonus when I make pizza, because we get to dunk his discarded crusts in whatever dip I've made as well as our own 😁

@MaMaD1990 you’ve got it! Great summary - and with regards to point 5, to be fair I think that poster had lost it a bit too 🤣

When I was little, my best friend’s mum cut off all the crusts. I always felt weird eating her sandwiches, even though I wasn’t a huge crust fan.

@ReceptacleForTheRespectable

Oh dear, that's a good point, but then look at this pigeon!
Clearly it must have been eating the crusts of baguettes for quite some while...

Crusts are yummy....i like a good crust!
There is still too much food waste in the world but i wouldnt argue over it.

Btw...i didnt love them as a child but soon came round.

I don’t understand the whole ‘Not eating the crusts is wasteful!’ argument. It just doesn’t make sense.

If you buy a loaf of bread and let half of it go stale, that is wasteful. You could have frozen half the loaf when you bought it, or someone else could have used that food.

However, if make a sandwich, you typically use two slices of bread. If you cut the crusts off those slices, you have still used two slices of bread. No extra food used; no food used that could have gone to someone else. No extra food =no wastage. As for the idea that children should be forced to eat their crusts (or anything else), that does not prevent waste. Why does forcing a child, or adult, to eat food they don’t want and won’t enjoy, in any way prevent waste? It’s STILL ‘wasted’ - it was just eaten by someone who doesn’t want it instead of being thrown away, with no better end result.

I also don’t buy the idea that the extra calories a child would consume if they were forced to eat crusts would fill them up. I just looked in my bread bin - a thick slice of bread is 104 calories. The crusts on such a slice would amount to 10 or 20 calories at the most. If you’re collapsing with hunger because you skipped a couple of bread crusts, something is wrong. If your child is craving chocolate an hour after lunch, it’s not because they didn’t eat their crusts - it’s because they want chocolate.

I pick my battles, my children won’t eat crusts but manage to eat salad in their sandwiches and the veg in their lunchbox. I cut the crusts off and chop up into smaller bits. This goes into a bag in the freezer which we combine with peas to use to feed the ducks.

I am 38...why would you throw the crusts away? O think it's wasteful and being fussy for fussy sake. I would wonder what % of the bread you are slinging away and I would say just don't eat bread then?

What about wraps? Surely that's all crust? A crusty roll? Uncut loaf? French stick? I'm assuming all the mom crusts eaters don't eat all those other types of "crusts?