The Clear-a-Plate

Meant to add "Project" to the title.

Silly idea. Good cause but silly idea.
The comments on there are pretty good.

I know a mum who eats up what her kids have left.
She put on weight because of it.
She has had to stop doing it, it was not doing her any favours.

I agree, soon. Eating more than you need is just as wasteful and throwing excess food away.

I am amazed when eating at a 'help-yourself' type restaurant at the amount of food some people pile onto their plate. I find it quite obscene. That is absolute greed, just because it's 'free'.

I get so cheesed off with the massive portions that are provided in some restaurants. Such waste and the cynical side of me thinks it's so more can be charged. A couple of days ago a few of us went to a lovely garden centre for lunch and each plate could have served three people. We ate what we wanted and told the waitress we wouldn't have puddings as we were put off ordering because of the size of the dinners. We won't go there again, either.

Looking at the portion sizes recommended on this site, they would over-face me, too. I know many of us need smaller portions as we get into old age, so why don't restaurants allow people to choose the size of their meals?

I do so agree! I've always had a small appetite, and I eat slowly too. 'Normal' portions these days are so over-facing and I do wonder what happens to all the leftovers at restaurants and cafés.

Portion size choice would be helpful all round, I think.

I do agree about portions. It so puts us off going out to eat. When we go to out local, we often just have a starter each and then share a pudding - more than enough for us. And when I order ready meals - as we are doing at present because things are not normal here just now - I order the mini-meals - they are more than enough.

I'm put off by portion sizes too when eating out, so we always have starters.
The supermarket ads don't help either, by showing tables laden with food!
You would hardly guess that some people are starving.

I don't have anywhere near the appetite I used to have so just picking up on what when said re appetites diminishing as we get older, could this be a reason we now think plates are over laden?

Re carvery type meals. I find them obscene too, like pigs at a trough as they load up plate after plate.

In carveries the portion of meat can be quite small. The plateful often looks huge because people (well, me anyway) pile on loads of healthy veg.

Must go to Toby Carvery again soon. But must avoid the over-sweet high calorie desserts.

I refuse to do buffets unless each item is 'served' at Church lunches as the first in line piled on everything even for young children and then most of it was thrown away.The people at the end of the queue got almost nothing, and there were all these huge plates of food just lying on the tables.
Some people wouldn't even ask what it was and then announced that they had 'never liked that'; I would ask why they took it then, no anwser.
Just plain greed, eyes bigger than the belly!!!!!!!
If we are doing a Charcutterie/cheese and wine, I put 4 tables around the hall with exactly the same items on them then announce this, so we don't get big queues. Some people still go to each table,,,'just in case'!!!

eepurl.com/ezRdM

Fareshare website.

If I go out for a meal with anybody, one orders a main meal and the other a salad and we share. Used to do that all the time with my husband.

Striving for more seems to be hard-wired into our most primitive brain; and this is clearly particularly true of food, the basic survival fuel.

I watch my brother in a restaurant and just feel ill - he will eat more in an evening than I do in a week!

Not sure if I saw it on this site or not.
Some people order a starter, then a different starter for their main course.
Seems like a good idea to me.

Most of our meals are eaten at home and I do not cook or serve out more than we eat. I know what our potion size is and do not overdo it.

Agree with all the above. I've always been frustrated by portion size and the seeming impossibility of ordering a small portion. It's obvious that a young six foot man will need more food than an older and much slighter woman.

I think the notion of clean plates came from the days when food was rationed and if the plate wasn't cleared then there really was nothing else. It's quite inappropriate today when for many, but certainly not all, food is over abundant.

Being vegetarian, soontobe, there are still some places where you can only get starters, unless you want pasta all the time.

I am surprised that the catering isnt much better for vegetarians.
After all, meat eaters can eat vegetarian dishes on offer, but not the other way round.

I have been equally surprised over the years, that low fat puds are not a standard thing to find when eating out.

It's not the fat that's the problem. It's the sugar. Or if you live in America the ghastly corn syrup.

Either don't bother with a pudding or have fruit.

Portion sizes are part of the USA problem!
They are ginormous!
Enormous bags of crisps and biscuits as standard.
You cant even buy any smaller packets in some places. They dont exist.

Is it sugar and not fat over here?
Or both?

Mostly sugar I think. There has been a nonsense about fat for many years and manufactured food had sold 'healthy' stuff as 'low fat' they simply substituted sugar in their products. Fat takes longer to digest and is needed in appropriate quantities. Sugar is not needed at all. Thatbags has posted a lot of info on this subject.

No sugar at all?
Didnt know that.

Years ago, when I was working, and before the company got the economy bug, there was an annual "Christmas" dance, in January, held at a local dance hall, which had several rooms besides the actual ballroom. One room was given over to the buffet, which was included in the ticket price, and was ENORMOUS! There would be several large turkeys, hams, pork joints, plus loads of salad, pies, sausage rolls, etc, then lots of sweet desserts to choose from. It was a help yourself thing, and at the end of the evening we were allowed to take home any food that was left over. I never ceased to be amazed at the greed of some folk, especially the ones who`d be seen carrying out whole turkeys!

I don't think older people take less at all. Years ago in my 20s I went with Ex on a cruise with some older friends. The first meal as we left port was a buffet. I was horrified. We were pretty much the youngest there and all the older people were almost running to the tables to help themselves with gross quantities of food. I was appalled, truly, having been brought up to hold back. Brits - and no sign of a queue! I asked a steward if it was always like that, and he said it calmed down after a couple of days but not to worry, I could take comfort from knowing that we would hit the Bay of Biscay in a few hours and it was rough that night!