Clean Plate Club
Are you a member of the ‘Clean Plate’ club? Were you raised to finish everything on your plate, lest starving children elsewhere go hungry?
I understand parents wanting their children to fill up on healthy, nutritious food, rather than picking at their dinner and then chowing down on dessert. I also understand that food is expensive, takes work to prepare, and shouldn’t go to waste. But forcing your children to finish their food when they’re full isn’t the answer. I was reminded of this on my recent trip to Alaska. My mom was sitting in the hospital, faced with yucky meatloaf. I had gone down to the salad bar to get her the fresh veggies she wanted, and she had eaten those, and some of her meal, and was full. She looked sadly at her plate of lukewarm hospital meatloaf, and sighed, “I suppose I should finish it.” The relief on her face when I told her not to finish it if she didn’t want it was a surprise to me. This is a woman who has been battling her membership in this particular club for over half a century. She has been trying to train herself to leave food if she doesn’t want it, and eat it if she does. What could be more simple, more sane, than that? But she was brought up by parents who had lived through the depression, who knew what it was to be hungry, or to watch those around them go hungry, and to waste food when others were hungry was a sin. But really, how does it help the hungry person down the street if you finish your hospital meatloaf? It doesn’t. How does it hurt them if you don’t finish it? It doesn’t.
I found an article about the origins of the clean plate club, that I found interesting:
In August of 1917, Congress passed the Food and Fuel Control Act. Its purpose was to help America avoid food shortages during the war and to curtail importation of food as much as possible. President Woodrow Wilson made Herbert Hoover the head of the U.S. Food Administration, which was charged with implementing the act.
Hoover took a number of measures to regulate all aspects of the food supply in America, but he also relied heavily on the American sense of volunteerism and patriotism. The idea was to conserve food by eating less, self-rationing scarce foods such as flour and sugar and by focusing on eating what you took, so it didn’t go to waste. School children signed pledges that said: “At table I’ll not leave a scrap of food upon my plate. And I’ll not eat between meals, but for supper time I’ll wait.”
Of course if your parents or grandparents were raised during a time when children are taking an oath to not waste food, they are going to grow up as full fledged members of not letting food go to waste, and chances are, they’ll pass those lessons on to their children.
I have to wonder about those lessons that are taught to us during the first 10-15 years of life, which we then find out are wrong, or simply no longer apply to our situation. Why is it so hard for so many people to get to the point where, if they don’t want their food, they can not eat it? Whether it’s nasty or you’re just full, there’s no reason to eat it if you don’t want to. (Exception made if you’re poor and that’s all there is, but my experience has been that when I’m truly hungry, almost anything tastes good, so I’m thinking this doesn’t really apply to most of the folks reading my blog.)
I’m thankful that my mom raised me with a more sane attitude towards food. She didn’t want us wasting food, and we were poor most of our lives, but she took care of that by telling us she wanted us to finish our food if we served it to ourselves. If someone else served it to us, how could they know how hungry we were, so why should we have to eat it all? That’s especially relevant when dining in restaurants, as portion sizes have increased so dramatically over the last 20 years. So we learned to take how much we wanted, and if we were still hungry, we could go back for seconds. I hope that at some point, my mom can learn that lesson deep down inside of her, so she’s never again faced with disgusting hospital meatloaf, a full stomach, and the feeling that she really should eat it.
15 Comments
Joan
The whole clean plate thing is so ingrained in my mind. I hate it. My son is the same but I think that’s because he is a teenage boy who is always hungry. My daughter doesn’t do clean plate. She really seems to have a grasp on when she is full.
--Deb
“There are starving children in China/India/Europe….”
I was definitely taught to clean my plate as a child, and still automatically think that way when I eat at home–not to put more on my plate than I’m planning to eat. But at restaurants where the serving sizes are often huge? Then I can resist the pull… usually (grin).
--Deb
Oh, and I hadn’t heard of that act from 1917, but I would have thought that the Depression in the 1930s would have had a stronger effect–at least on our generation. Since the 1920s were so famously extravagant and then, boom, the 30s and there was nothing and any food on the table at all was a blessing. Followed by the ration-stamps during WWII. Anybody who lived through or was raised by people who lived through those kinds of shortages–whether they were driven be economy or the war effort–is going to be more concerned about not being wasteful.
J
–Deb, I also was thinking of the Depression (my Grandparents grew up during the Depression, and were definitely affected by it), as well as recent immigrants who might have come from times of starvation in their countries of origin, plus the rationing in WWII. Lots of times when wasting food would be a problem. I thought the vow too interesting to pass up.
Autumn's Mom
I remember that quote, although couldn’t remember who said it til now. My dad was a control freak so he was the clean your plate kind of dude. Thankfully my mother wasn’t. My thing at home is, eat til your full and ask if anyone else would like to finish what you left. Usually, someone is still hungry 🙂 and nothing goes to waste.
Starshine
I am a clean my plate kind of girl, and I’m trying to break free of that. When I lived in Spain, portions were smaller. I would clean my plate and be satisfied. Here, portions are so huge. I still clean my plate, but I feel stuffed afterward. Interesting post. I need to work on only serving myself what I want on the first pass and allowing myself seconds if I’m still hungry.
Theresa Bakker
This is amazing. Good work. I remember trying to lose my “baby weight” and realizing that I was eating all my toddler’s leftovers. Now I try to serve smaller portions and the scraps either go into the dog bowl or the trash. How weird that we have to learn things like this.
Cherry
Both my brother and I are not only clean the plate types but clean the pot too. We will both continue to eat while in pain until a dish we are enjoying is gone. We both realize this pattern now, and are trying to break it but it is so ingrained in our brains.
I believe we get to thank our father for this one. He served very large portions of rather unbalanced meals, and would tell us how he was so hungry as a child in China. I very clearly remember him yelling at me to eat the fat of a steak or chop when I didn’t want to because I should be thankful that we are able to have meat every night. I now love it and it pains me to cut it off and leave it on the plate.
My husband and I don’t have kids yet, but we already argue about how we will handle this with our kids. He’s the type that will force a kid to eat the same food they are refusing to eat for meals on end. Where I would like to instill a healthier relationship with food.
J
Cherry, the only time I would ‘force’ a child to eat something for meals on end is if they specifically asked for it to begin with. When Maya was a toddler, she would ask me to cook her an egg, and then not eat it. She was just looking for attention. So I would say, “Oh, you don’t want the egg? OK.” and get her out of the highchair and let her play. If she insisted she was hungry, I would put her back in the highchair, and give her the egg again. It didn’t happen more than once or twice.
But giving her something she doesn’t like, and then trying to force her to eat it? I think that’s a bad idea on many levels, and will make for a lot of unnecessary arguments, and perhaps skewed views of food.
hellomelissa
right now i’m just wondering how you are going to blog about BSG tomorrow and make it “D” themed. make it about apollo’s wife? hmmmm…
kookiejar
Such an interesting topic. My husband refuses to throw food away (he blames his parents for making him clean his plate)..but I (who never had any parental pressure to eat) have no problem throwing out food and not eating. Parents have a much bigger influence on our daily lives than they ever realize.
Nance
I had an aunt who was positively rabid about the Clean Plate Club. I hated eating at her house because, being constantly an overweight child, I already had food issues due to being teased by my brother. I worried about taking too much and looking piggish, taking too little and looking piggish for taking seconds, but then getting in trouble if I couldn’t finish that second helping. Any meal eaten at her home was fraught with peril. Good heavens! It’s a wonder any of us is even remotely normal regarding eating.
Angie
As a mom of a daughter with an eating disorder, I can tell you the Clean Plate Club is a bad idea. She was never raised with that rule, but as she was in treatment, they explained how damaging that attitude is.
It just makes sense, doesn’t it? Why teach kids to eat when they are not hungry? Crazy.
Py Korry
Well…I suppose because I’m not really part of the clean plate club, I can say that if I was a member of the club it would be for chocolate.
Jimmy
I’m still tyring to break the clean plate habit!!!!!