super sized

[Selkie]

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.

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?

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.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

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.

[Susan Otcenas]

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

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Food comes on ginormous platters. Properly sized dinner plates seem to have gone the way of the dodo.

Dinner plates are the new saucers.

[Biciclista]

and tea cups are bigger than the cereal bowls I ate out of as a child!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

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)

[Pax]

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.

[Biciclista]

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.

[OakLeaf]

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 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.

If it was me and a friend OTOH, I probably would.

[papaver]

yesterday we went with family to an 'all you can eat' grill restaurant. It's like people loose their self control on such occasions.

[OakLeaf]

yesterday we went with family to an 'all you can eat' grill restaurant. It's like people loose their self control on such occasions.

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.

Not that I can ever resist dessert of course.

[Veronica]

"there are starving children in Africa"
Susan

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.

Veronica

[Susan Otcenas]

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.

Veronica

Yeah, didn't work in my house either.

[reddDesign]

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!

[smilingcat]

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.