By Chana Rubin, Healthy Kosher Eating With Chana
Posted October 20, 2009
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Are you a member of the "Clean Plate Club"?

As a child, my parents insisted that I finish all the food on my plate. That's because children in China were starving. I didn't think to ask how the food I didn't eat was supposed to get to the Chinese. Nor did I understand then that it was really Jewish hunger in my parent's lifetime that was behind their directive.

What my parents didn't realize was that it's normal for us to clean our plates.

Human beings are natural eaters. We're born that way. It's the strategy that worked for survival – eat all you can, as fast as you can, because who knows when you'll eat again.

It worked well for our ancestors. But these days it hasn't served us well at all. Our response to a continuous supply of abundant food is to keep eating more and more of it. Regardless of the amount of food on our plates, it's our nature to finish it all.

Portion control and self-control are key

What can you do to counter the "clean plate club" instinct?

Start with portion control – the amount of food that you eat.

A serving is not necessarily the amount you decide to put on your plate. It's a specific amount of food defined by measurements like grams, ounces or cups.

Normal serving sizes are smaller than you think. For example, one portion of bread is the size of a cassette tape. Now think about the last bagel you ate. Most likely it was three or four times that size! (Click here for a guide to portion sizes: http://www.webmd.com/diet/printable/portion-control-size-guide)

Fill your plate in the kitchen and bring it to the table. Store whatever's left before there's a chance to eat it. When leftovers are out of sight, they're out of mind.

Most of us underestimate the amount of food we eat by 20%. So when you're filling your plate, dish out 20% less than what you want. There's only one exception: when it comes to low-calorie salad and vegetables (not potatoes!), serve yourself 20% more.

Use smaller serving dishes. The smaller your plate, the less you'll eat.

Children and the "Clean Plate Club"

If your children are taught to clean their plates at home – to eat everything they're served, they're less likely to choose food wisely when they're away from home.

That's the finding of a study of preschoolers who were allowed to eat however much sweetened cereal they wanted. Those from "clean-your-plate" homes ate 35% more than children who set their own food limits. Self-control starts at home, and it starts early.

As parents, it's our job to help children develop that self-control. That includes not just what they eat, but how much they eat. One way to do that is to gently encourage, but not force our children to make good choices.

Here's what I did when my sons were young:

I tried to make food fun and attractive – broccoli "trees", cottage cheese and fruit "people" and "ants on a log" (peanut butter and raisins in a celery stick), for example.

I encouraged them to taste a little bit of everything that I served. If they wanted more, they could have it. They were never forced to eat something they didn't like. As the boys got older (and fussier), they knew they could always make themselves a sandwich.

I used age-appropriate dishes and utensils. Small dishes are best for small, child-sized portions.

I never ate my children's leftovers. While we were careful not to waste food, I wanted to be clear that there was no harm (or guilt) in leaving food on their plate. They also learned that parents didn't always finish everything on their own plates.

Did it work? They're all fairly slim adults now. One son doesn't eat mushrooms. Another won't touch tofu. The third prefers grapefruit to chocolate. (Where did I go wrong there?)

They still tease me about having had to endure the "hardships" of growing up with a dietitian for a mom. But they have a good sense of what to eat. And none of them are members of the "clean plate club".

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Chana Rubin is a registered dietitian and author of Food for the Soul – Traditional Jewish Wisdom for Healthy Eating (Gefen Publishing House, 2008). She lives in Beer Sheva, Israel.

Visit her blog, Healthy Kosher Eating with Chana (www.healthyjewisheating.com) for the latest word on nutrition, food and healthy kosher recipes.