Finish Your Food: opinions?

[Die Neue Zeit]

In older family films, Finish Your Food was promoted around the family table, trying to discourage the waste of food. Recently, however, I have witnessed a few people waste food.

To what extent is Finish Your Food progressive, reactionary, neutral, or what?

[Princess Luna]

I guess its a good idea, just don't force yourself to eat till your sick and save left-overs if possible.

[Le Rouge]

Why should i finish my plate? I mean, if i always finish my plate, i'll end up fat. And when you're fat, your body needs more food than a regular shaped person. That means i need to eat more! Conclusion : Less money in my wallet, less money for the people.

And eating your plate because there's people starving in Africa is useless. The problem resides in how food is distributed.

[Veovis]

Sure, clean your plate... If you want to develop an eating disorder.

I struggle with my weight to this day because my parents made me do it.

[Decolonize The Left]

Just take what you think you'll eat and go back for seconds if you have to... I don't see the issue here.

- August

[Ostrinski]

I always finish my plate. I'm a pig :o.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

I always finish my plate, although most of the time because there's not a lot on it. I don't put that much on it because I don't want to waste any food. If I'm still hungry I'll grab more if there is any. But if I go out to eat I always feel like I have to finish the whole thing because I spent my money on it and I'm going to eat it all damn it!

When no one is looking I actually lick my plate if there's crumbs or sauce left on it. Why waste that delicious stuff? I'm a fat person stuck in a skinny persons body...

[Misanthrope]

Mandatory family functions are lame. Who decided to make family such a huge role in your life?

[Ravachol]

I recall it being 'Each according to his need', not 'each according to his plate'. 'Nuff said.

[Pirate Utopian]

I always finish my plate and I'd probably go for seconds (and possibly thirds).

[Die Neue Zeit]

Why should i finish my plate? I mean, if i always finish my plate, i'll end up fat. And when you're fat, your body needs more food than a regular shaped person. That means i need to eat more! Conclusion : Less money in my wallet, less money for the people.

And eating your plate because there's people starving in Africa is useless. The problem resides in how food is distributed.

My point is that you didn't take only what you could eat. I know how much I can eat, and I take only that. If there are leftovers, I take them home or just go to the kitchen, in either event putting them in the fridge.

[PhoenixAsh]

For me the golden rule is:

If you put it on your plate you finish it if at all possible. If somebody else puts it on your plate...well...they can't tell how much or how little you eat.

But the problem is not with adults. It is with kids. kids usually do NOT get to prepare their own plates. Parents do that. Forcing kids to finish their plate...while sounding like a good idea is actually the worst thing you can do. not o much because they eat to much but because parents have no fucking clue as to nutritional value and no fucking clue (more often than not) what their kids daily need is.

So kids more often than not are forced to eat way more than they actually can or need.

[Leftsolidarity]

For me my rule is: If I'm hungery- eat. If I'm not hungery- don't eat.

I don't see how it's complicated.

[Olentzero]

Yeah, forcing kids to finish their plate is a good way to give 'em issues (both mental and physical) later on. Kids aren't miniature adults; they don't have the same caloric intake requirements (mostly less, but sometimes more if they're hitting a growth spurt) and they shouldn't be made to eat as much as an adult does.

Problem is knowing when they're actually full, and when they got better things to do than eat. I guess building a regular routine around mealtimes (helping cook and set the table, getting water and beverages, and so on) would help, as it involves everyone in the household and lets the kids know dinner time is coming up, instead of trying to drag 'em off whatever activity they're doing when dinner is ready.

Oh yeah, +1 for licking the plate if there's good sauce or something on it. Only at home, though.

[Ostrinski]

When no one is looking I actually lick my plate if there's crumbs or sauce left on it.awesome

[Comrade J]

Really glad we have a thread on this important issue.

[Nox]

I have an OCD for eating the different foods on my plate one at a time, and always finishing everything on the plate.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

I finish what I have on my plate mot of the time because I try and only cook what I know I will eat.When the times come where my appetite isn't as great as I thought and I cannot finish what I have I simply don't eat it.

I think when older people force their kids to finish their food it is a psychological concept passed down from the Great Depression where food was scarce and everything had to be eaten.As the generations continued this was passed down causing problems for those who understood that our current society doesn't warrant everyone eating everything is they are not hungry.

[Zukunftsmusik]

For me my rule is: If I'm hungery- eat. If I'm not hungery- don't eat.

I don't see how it's complicated.

My rule: If you're hungry - eat. If you're not hungry - eat.

Maybe I should work on that....

[The Young Pioneer]

I live on a farm.

What I don't eat, the livestock enjoys immensely.

[Lobotomy]

my parents used to have huge fights at the dinner table over this. my dad would insist that I eat everything on my plate, and my mom insisted that I should only eat until I was full. she was right.

my grandparents, who had to deal with food rationing during WWII, look at me like I've slapped them in the face whenever I don't eat everything on my plate.

[manic expression]

my grandparents, who had to deal with food rationing during WWII, look at me like I've slapped them in the face whenever I don't eat everything on my plate.
Yeah, my generation's grandparents all lived through the great depression and can't actually conceive of the idea of not eating everything on your plate. I've always found that very interesting for some reason.

Personally, I hate throwing out edible food, I usually make an effort to finish what I take...if not, I'll throw it in the fridge and have it for lunch the next day.

[Ele'ill]

Jesus christ just put the left overs in the refrigerator. Kids not eating something they don't like? Yeah, cause they don't like it. Stop giving them food they don't like. "Well my kids don't like vegetables"- there's a lot of vegetables that I don't like to eat either so I find vegetables that I do like and I eat them. Are there adults somewhere who, as part of their regular diet, eat foods that they hate? No, there aren't. It also has everything to do with the rest of the meal, what foods go with what other foods and how all of it is prepared. I like steamed broccoli but I hate it raw. I hate shredded carrots but like the 'baby carrots'. Most of the dinners I didn't like that my mother used to make I didn't like because of how the food was cooked/texture/flavor/sauces etc.. Kids say 'I don't like food X' but they may like it (broccoli) and instead hate the sauce or something.

[Bandito]

I spent six months last year in the US.

The amount of food I saw get wasted by the people in the hotel I worked in brought tears to my eyes.

And my coworkers were shocked that I collected some of that food in the refrigerator in the break room (canned and sterile), and brought home with me. Apparently people who work for 7 dollars an hour find themselves elite enough to think of unopened groceries and fruit as an equivalent to a piece of dog shit if they haven't purchased them.

[khad]

I used to be a picky eater when I was a kid, but I forced myself to eat all the vegetables I didn't like and now, for the most part, I can eat everything.

Good dietary habits begin with being able to eat a variety of foods.

Can we find something else to submit for the oppression olympics now?

[NewLeft]

Most of my waste is just the packaging, I don't think I really produce food waste. It's really hard since I pretty much prepare everything I make.
It's probably worse to waste meat products than it is to waste veggies.

[kitsune]

Never had that rule. The only guideline I remember for the amount you should eat is hara hachi bu, eat until you are 80% full. Years later I found out that this comes from a much older Chinese expression: "Eat until 80% full, take 80 steps, live 80 years."

[Ostrinski]

Same thing with me. When I was younger I couldn't stand eggplant and cabbage, but now they're a regular part of my diet.

[Pirate Utopian]

I still don't like vegtables and as such don't eat them. Except potatos. The only green food I'll eat are M&Ms.

[Rafiq]

It is criticized to waste food, because there are hungry people around the world who could have killed to eat it.

But let us, as communists, criticize the very system in which there are hungry even exist!

Think about it. Why must the starving live off of the moral benevolence of the well fed? Why do we live in conditions in which the food we do not finish would be greatly demanded by other human beings who eat nothing?

These are the types of answers we should give.

[Pretty Flaco]

When I was a kid my parents would try to buy the cheapest food they could to make a meal and so if I wasted my food we didn't have nothing else for me to eat. So I didn't really have a choice. :blushing: But I didn't have to worry about that too much back then because I got the free lunch and breakfast at school and I'd always eat a lot there if I could.

[Ocean Seal]

How about not serving more than you can eat in the first place or just putting the stuff you don't finish in the fridge and eating it when you are hungry.

[piet11111]

The thing that ticks me off most is that my grandparents and my father tend to put stuff on the table that is a bit spoiled.

Once my dad made some rancid beef and slapped on a lot of sauce and he sat at the table waiting for me to eat it so i smelled it and noticed it was rancid and he criticized me for not eating it so i told he could have it all.

So he finally started with his plate and came to the conclusion that it was indeed to far gone to eat.
Obviously i pointed out what a dick he was for using me to test the edibility of the beef and trying to cover it up with sauce.

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ Your father had a bad sense of smell?


Jesus christ just put the left overs in the refrigerator. Kids not eating something they don't like? Yeah, cause they don't like it. Stop giving them food they don't like. "Well my kids don't like vegetables"- there's a lot of vegetables that I don't like to eat either so I find vegetables that I do like and I eat them. Are there adults somewhere who, as part of their regular diet, eat foods that they hate? No, there aren't. It also has everything to do with the rest of the meal, what foods go with what other foods and how all of it is prepared. I like steamed broccoli but I hate it raw. I hate shredded carrots but like the 'baby carrots'. Most of the dinners I didn't like that my mother used to make I didn't like because of how the food was cooked/texture/flavor/sauces etc.. Kids say 'I don't like food X' but they may like it (broccoli) and instead hate the sauce or something.

Don't kids generally not like vegetables, though?

[Vanguard1917]

In older family films, Finish Your Food was promoted around the family table, trying to discourage the waste of food. Recently, however, I have witnessed a few people waste food.

To what extent is Finish Your Food progressive, reactionary, neutral, or what?

Moral codes are rooted in material circumstances, and 'do not waste food' is a product, traditionally expressed by religion (food waste is a sin in religions), of the material reality of food scarcity. In Western countries, where food scarcity has been abolished (even if only temporarily) for many millions of people, the immorality of 'wasting food' has understandably waned. And thank god (or agricultural progress) for that.



It is criticized to waste food, because there are hungry people around the world who could have killed to eat it.

But let us, as communists, criticize the very system in which there are hungry even exist!

Think about it. Why must the starving live off of the moral benevolence of the well fed? Why do we live in conditions in which the food we do not finish would be greatly demanded by other human beings who eat nothing?

Indeed, indeed. Furthermore, how is my not eating every last crumb and sauce on my plate going to worsen someone else's hunger and poverty? What, that bit of mashed potato that i just 'wasted' could potentially be aeroplaned off to a starving person in the third-world? Most children over five are able to see the gaping holes in such logic, and yet it continues to be repeated by bourgeois ideologues everywhere. See, for example, the middle-class environmentalists going through people's bins (sometimes literally) and telling them off for chucking away goods superflous to their requirements, as though their 'overconsumption' is causing poverty elsewhere, and as if the world's impoverished could live off our charitable left-overs.

[piet11111]

^^^ Your father had a bad sense of smell?

No he knew it was bad but thought it was still good enough to eat.

[Olentzero]

Sounds like he needs to see the meat inspection scene from Battleship Potemkin. Or has he gotten better?

[piet11111]

Sounds like he needs to see the meat inspection scene from Battleship Potemkin. Or has he gotten better?

No he hasn't my dad when he grew up lived on a farm in the netherlands where his parents where very poor all the food they grew themselves that was not sold would be put on the table (meaning they ate the same damn things over and over again without using spices or anything to make it something special) and any money earned would be used to buy bulk foodstuffs.
Grandpa would get first serve and fill his plate entirely while grandma would take a much smaller portion and the kids more or less had to fight over the rest and if you where last you would get very little if grandma managed to safe anything at all.

This clearly does not promote healthy eating habits as everything will be wolfed down and filling the plate with more then necessary is done out of pure habit if given the chance.

And seeing my grandparents are hunger winter survivors waste was considered a sin so throwing stuff out that hasn't grown legs and walked out on its own yet would still be served up and as such my dad wont throw anything out unless its really far gone.

[Die Neue Zeit]

See, for example, the middle-class environmentalists going through people's bins (sometimes literally) and telling them off for chucking away goods superflous to their requirements, as though their 'overconsumption' is causing poverty elsewhere, and as if the world's impoverished could live off our charitable left-overs.

Much of the problem can be attributed to inadequate food distribution channels and food preservation methods.

[The Stalinator]

If I don't want to eat anymore, it's reasonably healthy, and there isn't enough left to put away for later, I usually give leftovers to my dog, so she can eat things that aren't weird, processed nugget crap. That way I'm not wasting food and my dog is happy. It's a pretty much flawless plan.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

If I don't want to eat anymore, it's reasonably healthy, and there isn't enough left to put away for later, I usually give leftovers to my dog, so she can eat things that aren't weird, processed nugget crap. That way I'm not wasting food and my dog is happy. It's a pretty much flawless plan.
Careful what you give your dog ...

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/people-foods.aspx

Also, you may be interested in the raw-food movement for dogs. I prefer to stick to kibble (but good quality kibble), because feeding my dog something raw kind of trips me out, and buying the raw-food tailored for dogs is too expensive for me. But check it out if you don't want to feed him/her food nuggets

My dogs love fruit, though. One will come running the second I snap a banana open. And bell peppers!! I've never seen a dog beg and cry for bell peppers! It's odd.

One of my other dogs will catch birds and eat them.