eating food so it is not wasted

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I come across this fairly regularly. People who had enough to eat but say I will finish that off so it does not get wasted. I don't understand that. People do not want the food thrown away but it is not considered a waste to eat more than you need.

My brother does this with his four kids. If one of the kids does not finish what is on the plate then the other kids have to eat so it does not get 'wasted' even if they are saying they do not want it.

I don't like waste either but I am not going to eat more than what I need just so it does not get thrown away. I would rather it get thrown away than just eaten when not necessary.

Even I was worried about keeping my kids fed, I would not make them eat everything on their plate if they were full.

My brother makes his kids finish each others food even when they are saying they are full. Sometimes they feel ill afterwards.

The ones who do not finish their food because their siblings finished it off are not starving an hour later because they ate enough to satisfy them.

It’s the worst thing that we were ever taught. Keep eating even when you’re full. It just doesn’t work well in an environment where we are constantly surrounded by unhealthy food.

I always tell my kids to stop eating before they are full, listen to your body.

Your choices are to cook food which will serve up well the next day as leftovers or accept you'll bin anything which doesn't get eaten. Having serving bowls and encouraging kids to start off with a small plate first and then take a little more should cut down on food getting binned if this concerns you?

I don't agree with your brother's idea that his other kids should have to eat food they don't want after it's been picked at by someone else. I think this is on the extreme end of not wanting food to be binned though, even my WW2 born parents wouldn't have done this and they made us reuse the bathwater as little kids!

Completely agree.

I have always had a smallish appetite and I can't eat quickly. Actually I think being a slower eater is a good thing really as you notice when you have had enough to eat before you over eat. When I was younger I was quite self conscious and apologetic about leaving stuff. Not so now, when I have had enough I just stop.

The same for cooking at home. I don't like throwing stuff out either and will always try to cook just sensible portions, but with the best will in the world sometimes you do misjudge and end up with more than you expected. I would never eat just to get rid of it or expect anyone at my table to stuff themselves beyond what they can manage, especially as I wouldn't do that myself.

This has been an issue once or twice with elderly FIL. He is of the generation brought up to clear his plate no matter what; however, he now has a very small appetite. There have been times I have served him a meal and, despite me saying "Don't worry if you can't finish it, just leave what you can't eat", he would still force it down and then feel unwell later because he has over eaten. Always same old reason - brought up to finish what is on his plate no matter what! Nowadays I either put everything out so that he can just help himself or, if that's not possible, I ask him to watch me serve and tell me when I have given him enough.

Visceral fat levels are related to diet, not how you distribute your eating over lunch and dinner.

There is so much guilt, shame and general weird feelings around food. It's so unhealthy.

I eat what I want and stop when I'm full. To be honest I don't care if food goes in the bin. It's not like I'm chucking away whole loaves of bread or packets of unopened ham.

We have an abundance of food in the West. It's the opposite of scarcity. There's too much of it. And so much anxiety around it - fuelled by generational trauma from the war and compounded by the obsession with being slim today. I refuse to buy into any of it. It's downright weird to force feed yourself out of anxiety about wase. That's simply disordered eating.

Yes of course, but some people cook far too much every day, and have no plans to save portions to refrigerate or freeze.

Compost bin great for any leftovers on plates not wanted, it gets recycled.

@Drew79 I add scraps and small leftovers to the compost bin. Better than eating it!

Stop serving up food! Put it in the middle and help yourself to what you want. That way whatever is left over can be used again the next day.

Very good point, I don't do that enough with my kids.

I've met several people in their 20s who genuinely didn't realise you could eat left over chicken the next day either cold in sandwiches or cooked again in something like a curry. They thought it would give them food poisoning! I do think having an abundance of readily available food has made some people less well educated about eating well on a budget and food safety. If someone has the means to cook extra food and throw it away then fair play to them, but some of these people were struggling to pay their bills.

Have you see how this works at buffets? People regularly overfill their plates!

I agree it’s unhealthy to make children in particular “eat this up” just so it isn’t wasted.

Much better not to put too much on plates to start with and then keep untouched food for the next day (that’s what most of my lunches are!).

that's for you to control. My gran did this with her 4 children and us grandchildren and there was no waste. We had to take a small amount and then come back for more if we wanted it. In the case of small children, you can serve them and say start with that, and come back if you want more.

it's a game changer.

Is it really waste though if you eat it!?

If you consume more calories at a meal sitting, say lunch out or whatever, cos you don't want to see it wasted ,then you will feel (& be) more 'full' , & can simply eat a little less at dinner, or later in the day. (You won't feel like eating alot either).

So it's not waste if done right really, it's nourishment, good food & calories in you versus dumped in the bin.

Surely as MathsMum you can sum that up !? ;)

If this actually worked then surely we'd all just eat one massive meal a day to save time. Actually scrap that, why don't we just eat the full week's calorie allowance on Monday?

The people who eat past their appetite seem to be the ones that struggle with their weight, suggesting that recalibration over a day is difficult.

I grew up with this message - its very unhealthy.

I tell my own kids - "you are not a bin. Excess food is "wasted" if it goes in the bin, OR if you eat food your body doesn't need. And your body is not a bin. So cook less, make a lunch for tomorrow with the leftovers, or throw the food away, but always remember first & foremost, your body is not a bin."

I don't like forcing people to eat more than they want. Eat however much you want. Dish up what's left into a container and take it as a work lunch the next day. Or freeze it and then use it in a week as a work lunch. Who can refuse a portion of .... shepherds pie as a lunch next week? Yum.

And sometimes we have a 'bits and bobs dinner'. When we've got loads of different bits in the fridge that need eating.

P.s FWIW, I am Irish and we were brought up to finish our meals. I also played alot of sports growing up & still do well into 'adulthood', so I often became the intemittant intervention stop after other members of my family had their dinner for any leftover food, then the dogs got the rest & before the bin. :))

Thankfully it doesn't seem to have done me any harm, as I've always been in good shape & still a reasonable athlete for my age thankfully...

The only slight con is that I absolutely abhor waste myself, so much so, that despite having a full dinner when out at a restaurant say, if I see half a steak, or other clean looking leftover food going back uneaten to the kitchen, I have to hold myself back from intervening & polishing it off.... even if it comes from a different table .... I know it's bonkers really, but there's no accounting for folk (even yourself) sometimes..... :))

It's often with beige food as well.

Healthy meals can usually be portioned, with people coming back for seconds if the want more and the leftovers saved for another meal.

As a farmer's daughter, I hate to see food being wasted, because I know how much work has gone into producing it. I think our society has become so far removed from the production of safe, plentiful food that we no longer value it. I'm not talking about forcing children to finish their sibling's uneaten food, but things like adults piling their plates high with food at buffets and carveries and then leaving it, or roasting a whole chicken, eating the breast meat and discarding the rest (something I've seen people say they do on Mumsnet!).

This sort of gratuitous food wastage is terrible from an environmental and ethical perspective. All the land that has been cultivated to produce that food, the fertilisers etc (often petrochemical based) that have been applied, the water used to grow it (often diverted from rivers, causing issues downstream), the energy required to harvest, process and transport it, and then the methane produced as it rots. And that's just plants: when meat is wasted, that animal has endured a short and probably stressful life (if intensively reared) and a frightening death. It seems such a shame that more animals have to endure all this than is actually required for our nutrition or even our enjoyment, so we have can have the freedom to discard their bodies.

So this is a plea from me: not to stuff yourself with unwanted food, but to be mindful of what you buy, to use your food before it goes off, to perhaps serve it in smaller portions so that leftovers in the serving dish can be eaten for lunch the next day, and just try to minimise food waste in general. Think of it as practice for the future, because with a global population that is still growing; with climate change, drought and soil erosion making food production increasingly difficult in some parts of the world; with our own climate becoming increasingly changeable (which makes it very hard to plan which crops to sow if you don't know if you'll be having floods or a drought in four months time); and global instability disrupting food disribution chains....the chances are that you'll need these skills, probably within the next ten to twenty years.

Doggy bags being a lot more acceptable in restaurants is really helpful now. I rarely finish a full meal out these days but they're usually happy to let you take the rest home and I'll have it for lunch the next day or something.

We always have leftovers in the fridge - they can make a lovely easy meal. Left over rice, meat, etc.

I sometimes have to stop MIL 'helping' as she throws perfectly good food in the bin.

But I won't force a second helping down rather than leaving it.