Quote Originally Posted by Susan Otcenas View Post
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
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.

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!