Do people not know about leftover foods?

How many of you were forced to clean your plates as a kid?

I never understood this and peoples' excuse is poverty and food going to waste. But my argument is, you can put the food in the fridge and have it again later. How is it wasting it? Have people not ever heard of the word leftovers? Do they not know how leftover food works? Why can't they just put the rest of the food in food storage containers or put some plastic wrap over their kids' plate and put it in the fridge for them to have later or for someone else to eat later? If someone accidentally made too much, why not just put the rest away in the fridge to have later than forcing themselves to eat it all?

Often times I have been seeing posts on Reddit about this, the guilt of not finishing your food, thinking you have to clean your plate so you are not wasting food and I am thinking in my head "leftovers, put the food in the fridge for later, do people not know about this?" I even asked on Reddit if people not know about leftovers and no one answered.

At least in my house, leftovers don't generally come off the plate. Plated food is either eaten or discarded. Leftovers come from what was not put on a plate.

Restaurant food is a funny exception. I don't have a good answer for why it is different, although I very rarely take anything home.

I was always expected to clean my plate, but I was also expected to only put as much food on my plate as I could eat in the first place. In our household, you could always have second helpings, but only if you would eat them. (There was no punishment for not cleaning a plate, I wasn't forced to over-eat, usually my parents would give me smaller portions that I could definitely finish and then more if I asked for it.)
In most cases I think this is because it's easier to store the parts of a dish separately, for example if you put sauce on your rice/pasta and then let it sit for a few hours, it'll get all soggy and unappetizing, whereas if you put dry rice in a storage container and the sauce in another one, you can just mix it when you're ready to eat more.

As a child, I had to finish all the food that was put on my plate. I was a fussy eater so it resulted in me sitting a long time at the table and crying......sigh. My dad grew his own asparagus. It was thick, tough and foul and I hated it. To this day I won't eat asparagus. We'd have cheap cuts of steak and it was tough. Eventually things seemed to improve over they years. Maybe I just got older and more accepting, but not of asparagus or my mom's split pea soup.

I have 7 siblings. we often bunked with our cousins. we didn't have leftovers.

I read somewhere that the whole "clean your plate" teaches kids bad habits since it encourages them to keep eating even if they're full

I use to never or rarely eat leftovers, but as I started becoming more responsible for paying for my own food, I started eating left overs more regularly. Funny coincidence lol

Now I'll sometimes make or order food with the intent to have left overs


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TheCaptain said:

I read somewhere that the whole "clean your plate" teaches kids bad habits since it encourages them to keep eating even if they're full

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Damn. Now I know where some of my problems stemmed from.

The bad thing about having leftovers is they are so often hidden behind the clutter in our refrigerator where it's forgotten about days later. At that point the food has gone bad. My rule when I live on my own is that I won't cook another meal until all leftovers are consumed. That way I'm not wasting money, saving refrigerator space, and food doesn't go bad.

I was one of those smartassed kids who, when my grandma told me that there were 'starving kids in Africa', said "Well, pack it up and send it to them!"

Got into trouble over that. LOL But people learned not to give me something if I didn't want/like it. Mom didn't care if I ate it all or not and she's really good at anticipating if I'm going to actually eat anything or not.

The elementary school tried to force me to eat all of the food on my plate when I absolutely hated what was there. I don't remember if they forced me to sit inside during lunch recess or not, but I told mom and she called the school and basically told them that she was the one paying for the food and if I didn't want to eat it, I could throw the whole damned plate away. (Because if I recall I hated cheese slices as a kid. And they just put a plain slice of fake cheese on the plate and expected me to eat it. I poked holes in it with the straw from my milk and spent the time making 'poops'. :lol I never had to clean my plate again, but they also started letting kids say no to things they hated.

I mean, if you know a kid cannot stand the smell or sight of broccoli, why are you gonna try to force them to eat it?

I understand the whole idea of "Have veggies and fruit and everything", but make it a choice. Like "You want broccoli or carrots for dipping?" Carrots plz.

It also depends on what the leftover is...some stuff doesn't store well, like battered chicken with sauce on it (lookin' at you, General Tso.) or french fries.

I was always told to clean my plate, and don't believe it taught me to overeat. It taught me to not waste food. That's because we were always given a very small portion, usually never enough. We we're then told to get our own seconds if we wanted it, but only take what we would fully eat. Anything left over was then put into the fridge for leftovers night.

It was children are starving in Europe for me in the 60s as I was forced to clean my plate including "no thank you helpings" of things I hated like liver and beets. I'm nearing 60 now and only a few pounds overweight and struggle to waste the food I don't need on my plate, especially at restaurants with overly generous portions. My parents grew up during the great depression when food was scarce so beat in to me not to waste any and all these years latter I still over stuff myself.

Was always taught to clean my plate and truly believe it has led to unhealthy eating habits and difficulty learning portion controls.

Sheepies said:

Was always taught to clean my plate and truly believe it has led to unhealthy eating habits and difficulty learning portion controls.

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This may help you. When I portion out my food, I ALWAYS put a small enough amount on my plate so that I'm certain I will want to go back for seconds. This way it gives my stomach time to catch up with my feeling of hunger. And often enough I'm too lazy/tired to want to get up again just for a little more. I even went back for seconds this last thanksgiving, but had so plenty enough I wasn't motivated for thirds. Nothing wasted, and no overeating. Not because I cleaned my plate (twice), but because I went with portion control first.