In a multi-cultural country such as India, food is considered sacred and wasting away even a single morsel is adjudged irreverence. “Clean your plate before you get up” has been a practice that has been ingrained from our childhood to make sure we get adequate nourishment during our growing years and more importantly, to ensure that no food gets wasted. While our parents had our best interests on their mind, growing up, it can give way to unhealthy eating habits, disruption of body’s hunger-fullness mechanism, paving the way to weight gain and obesity-related diseases. It also does not help that a majority of us are eating out of big 10 and 12 inch plates. A tendency to finish up all the food that’s there on the plate even after the hunger has been satiated is called the “clean plate syndrome” and if you have a propensity to do the same, welcome, you are now in the “Clean Plate Club.” As we have mentioned earlier, clean plate syndrome can lead to overeating. The concept to continue eating even after you have reached satiety is not a good eating practice because it leads to weight gain and prevents you from losing weight. If you belong to the “clean plate club,” then the first step towards weight loss would be to quit the club. In this post, we have listed down 10 ways to quit the clean plate club for once and all.
What is Clean Plate Syndrome?
The clean plate syndrome is to consume all that food that’s there on the plate despite being full and stuffed. As kids, we were instructed to finish all the food that was served on the plate, but after becoming adults, the guilt of throwing away food eats into our moral conscience. We also often underestimate the calories present in the last few bites and continue overeating in order to finish all that’s there on the plate. Interestingly,the clean plate syndrome is forceful mostly with sugary and high-fat foods, not with healthy food or vegetables.
9 Ways to Quit the Clean Plate Club:
1. Stop Overserving yourself: If you are trying to lose weight, stop eyeballing food quantity, instead measure the amount that is being served, and don’t overserve food that you would later struggle to finish.
2. Eat Until 80% Full: This one simple rule can boost your weight loss and improve overall health as well –”Hara Hachi Bu” is an eating technique that originated from Okinawa region of Japan where people live a long life, are not obese, and rarely suffer from any metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, stroke or cardiovascular issues. “Hara Hachi Bu,” translates to “eat until you are 80% full.” This practice promotes putting a stop to eating once a person reaches 80% satiety. Here’s a detailed post on how to practice to eat until you are 80% full.
3. Portion Control: Without calorie deficit, weight loss cannot happen, and portion control is an essential factor that gets you into calorie deficit. Read about 10 Tips to Portion Control Food for Weight Loss.
4. Meal Prep: Meal prepping promotes healthy eating and saves a lot of time during busy days when you have no time for elaborate cooking. Preparing batches of healthy food and storing them up in the fridge, that would last for most days in the week will save a lot of money, and cut down loads of calories that make their way through ordered foods from restaurants and eateries. Learn how to meal prep on a weekly basis to lose weight on the Rati Beauty app.
5. Eat Mindfully: This practice makes you more conscious about the kind of food you choose to eat, the quantity you are serving, and helping you make the right kind of food choices. All these factors add up when you are trying to lose weight. Mindful eating also makes you more responsive of the signals from the satiety hormone “leptin” on when to stop eating the moment you are full. Read about 9 Mindful Eating Hacks to Eat Right and Lose Weight.
6. Get the Doggie Bag: Restaurants are known for serving large portions, and if you are worried about leftovers, get a doggie bag before you begin to eat, and transfer half of your plate’s content into the bag. This way, you would be able to cut the portion size and lower the chances of overeating.
7. Save the Portion as Leftover: If there’s still food on your plate, save the extra as leftover and get creative the next day, one tip would be to adding it to omelettes or mixing it up with the chappati dough and make delicious rotis.
8. Eat on Smaller Plates: The bigger the plate, the larger is the room for more food to be served. Make that important switch from 10 inch dinner plate to 8 inch small plate, and you would be able to finish everything that’s there on the plate without overeating.
9. Fill Half Plate with Vegetables: As we have mentioned above, you are likely to overeat with sugary and highly-processed food, not with vegetables. Fill half of your plate with vegetables and you would realize that you are able to clean the plate without wasting food and without dumping the extra calories into your body.
How To Eat Until 80% Full to Lose Weight
9 Mindful Eating Hacks to Eat Right and Lose Weight
FAQs
4 Tips to Stop Being in the Clean Plate Club
- Be Mindful of Habit vs. Hunger. ...
- Mindfully Practice. Intentionally leave some food behind, even if it is a bite or two. ...
- Deal With Guilt. Be honest with yourself. ...
- Remind Yourself It's OK. It sounds simple.
How to reset your mealtime mentality
- Practice mindful eating. Slowing down and really savoring your food can encourage you to eat less naturally. ...
- Save leftovers. Once you're satisfied and have had enough to eat, pack away any leftovers into a container or to-go box for later. ...
- Be smart about portion size.
Use smaller plates, or dish yourself exactly the amount you want to eat. That way, you can feel good licking the plate. If you're still hungry for more after finishing your plate and giving your body some time to digest, go ahead and serve up more. Better to return for seconds than overdo the first portion.
What is the clean plate club mentality? ›
The “clean plate club” refers to the habit of feeling compelled to finish all the food on your plate regardless of your levels of fullness. Breaking this habit and learning to listen to your body's hunger and fullness cues is essential for maintaining a healthy relationship with food and managing your overall health.
Why do I feel like I always have to finish my plate? ›
Sometime hormones play a role in the desire to eat past fullness and other times it's a psychological trait like people-pleasing that's driving the behavior. Learning how to stop eating when full starts with awareness as recognizing the obstacles is the first step towards action.
What is the clean plate habit? ›
The clean plate club is a term used to describe individuals who automatically finish all the food that's on their plate at meals. Hence creating a clean plate, literally. This is an experience that makes it difficult to tune into and honour your body's fullness cues.
Is finishing your plate healthy? ›
There is nothing wrong with finishing your plate of food and this is a normative part of the eating experience. And, it can be really difficult when you feel like you have no choice about whether or not to clean your plate and feel obligated to keep eating even when you've had enough food.
How do I leave my plate? ›
When you are finished, leave your plates in the same position, do not push your plates aside or stack them. Lay you fork and knife diagonally across the plate, side by side, pointing at 10:00 and 4:00 on a clock face. This signifies to the wait staff that you have finished.
How to not feel guilty for wasting food? ›
Make the most of leftovers: When you do take food to-go, transform leftovers into new meals like stir-fries or soups. Create a weekly “clean out meal”: To reduce food waste, you can use food nearing the expiration date to create a “clean-out” meal that puts the food to use.
What is consumption closure? ›
We empirically show that consumption closure—the expected satisfaction associated with completion of the uneaten food—underlies this effect. That is, (non)closure can effectively trigger a desire to continue eating, thus highlighting the importance of this variable in driving food-related behavior and decision-making.
The answer substantially depends on the customs and traditions of each country. While in some parts of the world, leaving food on the plate is considered rude, in other parts, it is deemed to be respectful and, moreover, it is the only acceptable way.
How to break the habit of eating everything on your plate? ›
"The plates we serve our food on are usually pretty large, so even just something as simple as decreasing your plate size can really help you stick to more appropriate portion sizes and avoid overeating, especially for those who have been taught to finish everything on their plate," says Arrindell.
What is problematic about the clean your plate approach? ›
“Cleaning your plate sets you up for using external cues as opposed to internal cues for figuring out what's an appropriate amount of food for you,” she says. “If you're used to feeling like you have to clean your plate, on a subconscious level, you might ignore those internal cues that you're full.”
What is the clean plate theory? ›
His goal was for people to eat less, use less essential ingredients, and to finish their entire meal. By doing this, young children developed the habit of eating everything given to them, thus “cleaning their plate.”
What is the doctrine of the clean plate? ›
The food-saving, clean-plate idea was revived in 1947 after World War II, when Harry Truman called upon Americans to curb waste in order to help send food to the starving post-war populace of Europe. Hundreds of elementary schools promptly formed Clean Plate Clubs. Finishing one's fish sticks became a patriotic duty.
Where does clean plate club come from? ›
Creating the club
The U.S. Food Administration was terminated after the First World War, but in 1947 the “Clean Plate” proposal came back and was encouraged by President Harry S. Truman, who aided in officially forming the “Clean Plates Club” in elementary schools across the country.
Why can't I leave food on my plate? ›
Fear of Food Waste: Many people feel guilty about wasting food, which can stem from lessons learned in childhood or awareness of global hunger issues. This guilt can make it challenging to leave even a small amount of food uneaten.
