Give your doggy bag to a homeless person or just don't eat out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Biciclista
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Give your doggy bag to a homeless person or just don't eat out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Biciclista
you clearly don't get it, do you. It's not about me. I have an efficient system (I take doggy bags) for meals. I'm talking about the revolting over consumption happening in this country. Me giving a doggy bag to a homeless person isn't going to change the way we waste and consume.Quote:
Originally Posted by mickchick
I get it. I've always "got it". I was one of a group of kids who founded what was probably the first recycling center in Somoma county when I was in Jr. High and I'm 53. Do the math ;) :rolleyes: I've always got it that there is no "away" :rolleyes:. But what is going to change it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Biciclista
How do you get the message out that small is good? Is it enough to talk diet and portion control or greener choices? Is it enough that lots of us are living simply and well and looking fabulous when you have corporations such as fast food running ads making it seem that they are the friend of the poor and harried busy people with mega portions for less.
The perfect heirloom tomato or the local gelato shop doesn't have a budget for a Superbowl ad. So how do you get the message out?
It is really sad that every meal served needs to be huge. Also, I personally think the ingredients in most of them are designed to prompt you to eat and crave even more, not feel better. Now days, healthy food is considered specialty food, and supposedly healthy alternatives at quick easy restaurants include things like salads with half your daily calorie intake! When it comes to a lot of whole grains and items without sugar or chemicals added, I find it's way more expensive for less processed and artificial foods, than a box of the usual unhealthy mainstream choice (e.g. a whole grain cereal with nuts and very little added sugar).
It's a pretty shocking reflection about the food views in our societies that, healthy foods, foods with reasonable fat or calorie content, reduced portion, or low sodium, is specialty food, light sized, diet food, or viewed as for people who already have diabeties/heart disease/obeasity/etc! :eek:
One can always make a full meal & freeze the other half...oooo genius :rolleyes:
Ian remembered something about a meal we asked for when we were in Canada or the US.. He just wanted a ham sandwich. Period. Do you think we could get it through to the servers etc that we didn't want chips or salad with it? Also, he didn't want butter etc on the sandwich...confused the poor folks..
I'm still shocked at the portion sizes in the US..Then again, we only eat out at our favourite Japenese place & wouldn't have a clue about the portion sizes elsewhere.
When we were younger we had to eat our veggies. Period. I remember not being allowed to drink more than one glass of milk at the table & having a timer because we'd just fiddle faddle around ignoring the food. I still say blech to brussel sprouts. UGH...
Don't treat me like I'm stupid, Mimi. I don't appreciate your comment. Don't you think we can agree to disagree about this?Quote:
Originally Posted by Biciclista
While I agree with you about over consumption, I believe that change starts with oneself and greed/over-consumption is not limited to the US (example, China's oil consumption & pollution). Griping about it isn't going to solve anything.
I try not to judge others or their choices, opinions, etc.
I think everyone basically agrees about this issue of over-consumption and waste. We all have slightly different takes on the solutions.
There is no need for us to get testy with each other. Maybe our wording sounds harsher than we intend it sometimes. In the end, we're pretty much on the same team, so hopefully we can let the arguing part just drop and move forward? :)
Personally, I see it both ways- I don't like that restaurants serve such big wasteful portions and I wish they'd cut it out/on the other hand I do enjoy having a second meal out of it the next day- like I'm getting two for one. But I think portions are just too damned big overall. Obesity is a real problem, especially for young people getting trained to eat gross amounts of high calorie/fat food.
In my mid-twenties, I lived in Japan for 2 years. When I returned to the US, one of the things that astonished me was how GIGANTIC portion sizes in US restaurants were/are, compared to what they are in Japan. Food comes on ginormous platters. Properly sized dinner plates seem to have gone the way of the dodo.
As a child, I was not permitted to leave the dinner table until I ate what was served to me. (Of course, portions were reasonable child-sized amounts. The idea was that I couldn't get out of eating my veggies.) But one of the consequences of that is that I feel this huge sense of guilt about leaving uneaten food on my plate. (I can still hear my father giving me the "there are starving children in Africa" lecture while I stared at some vegetable I should have been grateful to have on my plate.)
I think many of us were raised this way, and that's one reason that as the portion sizes have grown larger, we've all just continued to tuck into it until the plate is clean.
No wonder so many of us are overweight!
I abhor wasting food. I also abhorred being overweight. So now I split my meal into 2 portions as soon as it arrives at the table (I request a "to go" box be delivered along with the meal.) I eat the leftovers as another meal the next day.
Unfortunately, many many people do not get to go boxes for the extra food, and the result is that an incredible amount of food (along with all the resources and energy required to product it) is pitched in the trash. It really is a tragedy.
Susan
Dinner plates are the new saucers. :D :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Susan Otcenas
and tea cups are bigger than the cereal bowls I ate out of as a child!
I know mine sure is! (but at least I drink tea out it, not milk shakes) :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Biciclista
Susan - my father spent most of my childhood in SE Asia and saw those starving children first hand, so I know what you mean about never being permitted to leave food on your plate.
Like many here I abhor wasting food when so many on earth go without. My SO and I are trying to get in the habit of sharing meals in restaurants, ordering a single entree and asking for a separate plate. Some places will charge us a "plate fee" and I can understand their position...but what they really need to do is make the portions smaller in the first place.
If I understand the stats correctly, Americans eat out much more than most other countries, seems like the restaurants could do a big service in stopping obesity by sub sizing instead of super sizing.
It was a happy day for me the day I discovered that I was allowed to eat the "senior meals" at some restaurants even when I wasn't a senior.
If it's just me and my SO, we don't even ask for an extra plate. We're not shy about sticking our forks into the same piece of food.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pax
If it was me and a friend OTOH, I probably would. ;)
yesterday we went with family to an 'all you can eat' grill restaurant. It's like people loose their self control on such occasions. :eek:
It's true, but they're actually one of my favorite places to eat because I can have four or five or six different kinds of minimally seasoned cooked vegetables and a small serving of fish! Try getting that at a "real" restaurant.Quote:
Originally Posted by papaver
Not that I can ever resist dessert of course. :rolleyes:
I was the smart alec kid who said, "Fine, box up that liver and ship it to them." It never did get me out of eating the liver. :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Susan Otcenas
Veronica
Yeah, didn't work in my house either. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Veronica
I am the exact same...well...without the living in Japan part. I remember my parents always telling me to finish the plate, as if I had a bottomless stomach.Quote:
Originally Posted by Susan Otcenas
After having some issues last year with anxiety causing stomach sickness I now almost always bring home half for left overs. Considering I'm in college and jobless (for now) I consider the economical standpoint as well...two meals in one!
Take a tupper ware with you to the restaurant. If they want to make a rude comment, tell them that you are doing your part with reusable items to reduce waste paper etc.
Besides, if the restaurant is smart, they would encourage it because those boxes, buckets etc all cost money 20 cents to over a dollar a piece. And when your margin is slim like net profit is only around $2.00 per dinner, that one dollar box is a BIG expense.
And so what if other people look. We tell them flat out that we prefer re-usable containers over paper products, use it once and throw it away. If more of us do it, then it will become the norm. :D
I talked this over with my SO last night and since we both really like different kinds of food, this option will allow us to stop sharing plates of food that the other may or may not like and order or favorites instead...and have leftovers!Quote:
Originally Posted by smilingcat
I have been to buffets where people exhibited great engineering and balancing skills with the amount of food piled on to one plate. This is especially puzzling when it's all you can eat - you can go back!
'Splain that behavior :confused:
They don't want to have to get up and walk over to the table too many times.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zen
They are just afraid that everybody will do the same as they are so there won't be anything left when they go for a second or third time. :eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by Zen
I don't believe in the "clean your plate or you can't leave the table theory." I know it was popular when I was growing up, 50's, 60's, early 70's, but my parents never subscribed to it. I was a very picky eater until I was at least 12. I have a vivid memory of my mom forcing me to eat a banana and drink some horrible chocolate looking goop that was supposed to help my digestive system, which had basically broken down because I was living on bread and butter (Wonder Bread?) and milk. Boy, that really helped :eek:.
I had the same issue with my oldest son. He weighed 5.7 at birth and was consistently in the 10th percentile for weight. He pretty much lived on pbj for a few years, in addition to some breakfast foods. It became a real battle between us and was ruining our relationship. So, I essentially gave up. I served fairly healthy meals, but I never forced him to eat anything, including veggies, fruit, etc. He is still a skinny adult, at 118, 5' 6.5" inches, but he eats most foods. And, he's healthy.
If I have leftovers, I take them home. I don't bring Tupperware, but it's a good idea.
after forcing my first son, a 2 year old, to eat something he didn't want, he puked it back up.
Cured me completely. Never did it again. He'll eat anything now.:D
"No way, pile the plate with a mound of bacon bigger than my head, I'm not going back because that would involve walking" ;) :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Zen
I went on a cruise ship once (won the trip at work). Once was enough. Buffet behavior was gross.
I just refuse to eat at buffets. People are gross. Who knows what they have touched, or coughed or sneezed on... or how long the food has been sitting out. Just nasty.
Veronica
This is what I would not want for this type of vacation nor could I be convinced for myself, that the physical activities organized on a cruise ship would help me burn off enough of the ship buffet meals.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trek420
It's pretty rare we go to buffet meal restaurants. I will go places like this if there is absolutely not much restaurant choice while cycling in rural areas which has happened on the odd occasion.
Same here. Why would i want to be stuck on a boat?Quote:
Originally Posted by shootingstar
Buffet restaurants here are awful. they attract clientele who like to overeat.
I love cruises. You're not stuck on the boat. Usually it travels at night, and the next day you get off the boat and go on an excursion.
When we had a bigger family we enjoyed buffets because everyone could get what they want. The three of us who are left enjoy Chinese buffets, but I look around me and try to not eat like some of the people I see there.
Karen
Well then you don't want to know what goes on in any restaurant kitchen.Quote:
Originally Posted by Veronica
But I digress.
You're right. I don't. That's why we seldom eat out. That and I'm a good cook. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Zen
Veronica
free happy hour paella. But it wasn't a buffet, it was dished out individually.and it was gooood
Still the thought crossed my mind that it was made from the leftovers from patrons dinner plates :eek:
I woke up at 4:00am and couldn't get back to sleep, so I went to Hulu and watched "Supersize Me". :eek: Holy CRAP, all I want for breakfast now is organic fruit!!
Holy smokes, he showed didn't he? Do you remember what it was?Quote:
Originally Posted by Biciclista
I hated beets as a child and I still cannot stand the sight of them. My mother used to make pickled eggs with beets -- the smell could take paint off of walls.