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The only thing being left of the plate will be the garnish...with the exception of restaurant meals where its not unusual for 1/2 the plate to come home with me.

If you eat food that you *don't need* and likely don't even want (because you're full).. I'd say that's wasting it.

"Clean your plate" made me hate food and hate eating (though I never developed an eating disorder). It took a long time to get over it. I'd rather advocate taking those last few bites home for a snack later. Or if you want it, eat it.

Better wasted out than in. :)

Good point, d4kk1tt3n.

Personally I tend to feel the same way as you, Emma - it feels criminal to leave a bit on the plate or throw it away, even though it is such a small amount. My first reaction is also to just take less in the first place. Interesting post.

When I cook a dish, I determine it's nutritional value based on portion size. I then divide the total into that number of portions, and get that number of meals out of it. For instance, if homemade vegetable lasagna has 2000 calories in a pan, and I plan on getting eight servings, I know that each serving will be 250 calories. I then fill the rest of my plate with vegetable sides (usually something crispy like sauteed brussel sprouts, or something with oil like peas and cheese with herbs, and something more basic, like roasted cauliflower or squash) to fill myself. This is good for me, and good for the environment.

I was going to say the exact same thing, d4kk1tt3n.

If you're already full and not enjoying the last bites, it doesn't really strike me that you're making good use of that food.

Being the household dishwasher, I would be seriously pissed off to find a few bites of food left on a plate simply as an exercise in discipline.

I don't like the idea of throwing away food at all. Although I definitely do not "clean my plate" when eating out, because portions are usually too big and the food is generally higher in calories and fat.

How about just serving yourself a half portion to begin with, with the understanding that you will have seconds (and then not having seconds if you are full)?

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My Someday mother in law likes to serve large portions- her "small slice of pie" is most people's normal slice just to give you an idea. So leaving a little on the plate is normal for me. I just cant keep stuffing! So I take things home, even if its a small bite. If its small enough and appropriate, we combine the left overs and feed the pets!

Oh how I wish I wasn't a member of the clean plate club. I am always alarmed when eating with others and I literally am the only one who cleans every bit off the plate. It is definitely something I think about. I would like to be able to leave a little bit more, take a little bit less.
A thoughtful post!

I have a lot of issues with food, so I prefer not to play these kinds of mind games with myself. If I have given myself a nutritionally appropriate serving of my meal, why should I leave a few bites on the plate unless I'm sated or otherwise no longer wish to eat any more? My actual hunger starts to abate relatively soon after beginning a meal, so I'd end up wasting a good portion of my food if I stopped eating because I wasn't actively hungry any more. For me personally, I think there are more helpful ways to work at being a conscientious eater than this kind of arbitrary self-imposed rule.

It works.

I've read Michael's books and have enjoyed each. Have only glanced through this one but was impressed with the good, sensible advice that he offers.

Also, it helps me to keep a container for the animals outside as well as one for the compost - it's not going to waste, it is going to the raccoons, opossums, and the garden....

Also, for some reason, the "leaving the last few bites" attitude seems to help with slowing down - I don't understand why but it seems to for me.

The food is no more wasted in the Dumpster than it would be on my hips. Out it goes.

I have started serving our dinners on salad plates. My husband likes to clean a plate but we are trying to get out of the habit and this helps. It's not so bad to clean your plate when it's just a smaller of a plate. Then we get to have more leftovers too instead of stuffing ourselves.

This is definitely a first-world problem. Best leave some food on the plate so we don't eat too much!

This might be a good way to train yourself to eat less, but I think the better method is to simply put less food on your plate to begin with.

Hawaiians say to "leave some for the menehunes." They are the little Hawaiian gnomes who appreciate it when you leave some of your food for them.

Bah. Just a smaller plate.

My parents definitely were of the mindset that you had to clean your plate before you left the table. I could never do it, and would often fall asleep at the dinner table trying to finish.

One thing I learned as a teenager was to use a smaller plate. I'd use the 8" luncheon plate instead of the 10" dinner plate. It looks like a full plate, but your portion sizes end up being smaller.

Something my fiancé and I do now is that we mostly eat dinner from small latté bowls from Anthropologie. It keeps our initial portion size small, so if we really are still hungry, we can go back for more. If not, we have plenty for lunches and leftovers.

If we are speaking of at-home habits, and of controlling how much you eat, I would advocate much more strongly for taking at first a little bit less than you think you may need, then going back for more if you chose to do so. There is no need to waste the "untaken" food, you may pack it in a lunch the next day or make use of it in some other way.

If we are speaking of restaurants, I think it is acceptable to ask the restaurant to box the unfinished portion (or even box half in advance of your meal)

In the homes of others, it is reasonable to leave food on your plate if the serving was too much for you.

Right now, all of my meat comes from a local farm that runs a meat CSA. It has made me very conscious, in a good way, of the fact that I am eating pigs, chickens and cows that died so that I could enjoy them for dinner. I have always hated wasting food as I hate wasting most things, but I would find it particularly wrong to scrape a few bites of any of these animals into the trash.

Like others, I plan out portions of the meals I cook before I cook them, so I'm typically not eating a large portion anyway. I know that what I put on my plate is not too much to eat. I'd rather take a small amount so that leftovers can be saved rather than scraped, and eat every bite -- out of respect, if nothing else.

Screw it, use a smaller plate in the first place. Then you can freeze or refrigerate the leftovers and not waste anything.

And it's not wasting it to eat the last bite if you're enjoying it!

I use smaller bowls and plates as well...I find it very helpful.

I spent a semester in Thailand, where it is rude to clean your plate (it implies that the host hasn't provided enough food). A few times I forgot and polished off the last of something, necessitating another entire dish to be ordered / prepared / brought out - yikes! That taught me not to mindlessly just keep eating just because it is there.

Now I do usually clean my plate, but I try to serve small portions. And I don't feel bad about sticking two bites of something in the fridge for later if I don't feel like finishing it...

I agree about small plates too! Something somewhere (that seemed believable at the time) said that we feel full if we eat a whole plate full of food, but it doesn't actually matter how big the plate is! So, eat everything off a tiny plate and you'll feel more satisfied than if you eat half of the things from a large plate...

We have more tea cups and salad plates in our cupboards than we do large bowls and dinner plates. Just about the only time we eat off of the large plates is when we're having a salad with/for dinner. I just feel like it's just far more practical to eat a smaller portion and then go back for seconds, than it is to take a large portion and be stuck with too much food on your plate.

We actually use the small plates when we have people over for drinks or light dinner, because it prevents a lot of wasted food.

My mum would do this all the time and it drove me nuts.

Actually, what really irked me was her saving the 1/8c of whatever in tupperware! 98% of the time it wouldn't get eaten later, and I hate a messy looking fridge.

Tricky subject, especially when so many of us are trying to lose some of that pesky, pesky weight. I'm a fan of smaller plates myself, and good conversation usually helps me eat mindfully and stop when I'm full.

It's interesting in theory. I like the idea of making ourselves aware of our (mindless) eating habits. However, I find I'm in the small plate camp when it comes to trying to eat less. Of course some days even a small plate is more than I really need to eat, and then the "leftovers" go either back in the batch or in a container for the fridge. Oh, or the compost where it will go back into growing more food!

My mother always told me to leave a little something on the plate to silently communicate that I was finished eating and did not want a second helping.

I don't think it means "half the pie," just not to scrape your plate clean.

I love reading one of my favorite blogs and seeing you've opted to use one of my food pics (in this case a mostly empty plate).

I think it's a good idea to always leave a little on the plate. This bowl of pasta with a vodka cream tomato sauce was mine and I didn't leave much food at all. In fact, after I took the pic, I probabably scraped the rest out!

I was taught as a child that it was rude to completely clean the plate so I've always left the last bite or two. (Well, most of the time!)

I grew up in a "waste not, want not" household where cleaning your plate was expected. As a result, when I grew up, I also grew out.

I've changed that saying in my head to make it more acceptable (not completely, though, because I'm still frugal). My new saying?

"Waste not = waist not"

My mother grew up in post-war Germany. Translation: poor and hungry. I was brought up in the clean plate club as a way of appreciating food. By making us eat everything we put on the plate, Mom taught us to learn how much our bodies needed. We felt it if we overdid it, and we learned to take only what we knew we could eat. This might gross some people out, but I also have no problem with putting uneaten food back in the pot. I'm the only one who eats the leftovers anyway.

I haven't read all of the above comments so this may have been said already but --- the practice of leaving a little bit of food on one's place was created some hundreds of years ago by the upper class to show that they had so much money that they could AFFORD to leave food on their plates. It's since somehow become "polite" to do so...which is a bunch of BS.

If you are hungry--eat it.
If you aren't hungry or are trying to lose weight --don't eat it, or don't ask for/accept a portion you won't eat.

I am far too well-trained to clean my plate to ever be able to manage that. However I plan my portions and try to end up a little hungry at the end of my meals, for the principle of hara hachi bu (eating to 80% full). If my eyes are bigger than my stomach, I can save the extra food for later or give the dog a little treat. (And yes, he gets a kibble reduction if it's more than a taste, and no, he doesn't get much people food; it's a treat only.)

I try very hard to shop locally and it seems disrespectful to those hard-working farmers to waste any of their carefully grown food, not to mention all the work we put into cooking it. I'm trying to reduce unintentional waste, so intentionally leaving food really goes against the grain for me, not just because of how I was reared but how I feel about food still.

I can see how this could potentially be very useful for others! I just don't think I could bear to do it myself, so I need to avoid overeating and be conscious of my food by using other methods.

(If it's bad food or bad for us, I have FAR less trouble composting the excess. But we try not to get any bad food to begin with!)

I like the spirit of leaving food behind, and to me it sounds like it ties into slowing down, realizing, checking in internally, being aware. I can see how the symbol is helpful. It's a lovely sentiment, whether or not it's appropriate for every household.

I think that this sounds a little silly. Be careful about portion sizes and don't waste food. I think that people need to pay attention to how much they serve themselves rather than leave a bite or two uneaten (unless they genuinely don't want to eat it all).

Also, "It's about changing our learned instincts..." Instincts aren't learned. They're behaviors that an organism is born with (like nest-building in birds). And humans don't have instincts. They have drives.

You know, I think if you don't have a huge dinner plate then it's really not an issue. We have Corelle dishes that we got and the "dinner plates" are more like our serving platters. We use the smaller plate as our meal time plates. I don't see the harm in not leaving food on your plate. It's more what you put on your plate than anything. That and I have a 2 year old and a 5 year old. We do not load up their plates, and the concept would be lost on them anyhow. Not that I want to have to explain to my 5 year old why I expect her to eat what she's given while I throw away food on my plate. Self control should start with the serving spoon. I know for a fact that I need to work on that myself. ;)

Until 2 weeks ago, if there were like 2-3 forkfulls left on the plate and it still looked good enough to eat the next day, I just collected it for lunch (adding sth else for bulk), otherwise it went to the compost bin. Now we have a cute little piggie that eats virtually everything up to coffe grounds and tea bags (which I don't feed her, of course, or she'd get hyper-active), so food-waste problem is solved.

I think a lot of people find this REALLY difficult-I know I've read about Nigella Lawson finding this difficult. When I lived with a family in Germany they always served the food in a large bowl/platter in the centre of the table and I found that that really helped me as I could choose my portion size. I also noticed that it made eating with children a lot less stressful too as they could choose-if it went on their plate they had to eat it, but they controlled that portion.

it was common practice in my house growing up to use a piece of bread to wipe up the plate at the end. this was especially common and delicious when the meal was pasta with pesto. it also took clearing your plate to a new level.

i always cut restaurant portions in half because their sizes are way too big. i also always never finish what is on my plate.

i compost everything but meat, which makes me feel better about tossing it.

i save the left overs, and rarely end up throwing much away because i make meals of many servings.

also, eating food that you don't need or want is wasting food too. each human being needs only a certain amount of food to function, and eating more than you need is a waste of resources. some over weight people could support an entire other person with the amount they over eat = waste

I can't throw food just because of some advice. Instead, I can have half of the food I normally put on my plate and leave the other half in the pot. :)

I think Pollan sends a good message overall but some of things he says, or doesn't say, can be confusing. Like leaving food on your plate. I remember him writing something about the death of home cooking. Well, telling people to leave food on the plate seems consistent with his idea that home cooking is dying--which I don't believe in and to me seems like a cop-out. If he's going to follow through on his message of "sustainability" he needs to take that all the way into the kitchen. If he's advocating buying expensive ingredients from small farmers is he really expecting people to throw it in the garbage? Knowing how much food to prepare, the value of that food, how to extend it into the next meal--these are things that really complete the circle in my opinion. Due to the nature of the business I work in, I often see unfinished portions coming back to the dirty dish area and that saddens me and will never really accept it--I'll always try to figure out ways to reduce the possibility of wasted food. Some restaurants that are criticized for their "small" portion sizes, have, in my opinion, realized that no matter how small you make the portions, some people will still not completely finish their plate for psychological reasons--just as Pollan is advocating.

I hate wasting food. Period. I'll take a smaller portion, I'll save little bitty leftovers, put on an extra pound, whatever - as long as I don't waste food.
I also grew up in a "if you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding" household. But my parents weren't super strict with it - "if you really don't want it, don't eat it," and then my dad would usually end up finishing any meat on my plate.

Regardless, to this day I feel sad when perfectly good food goes in the trash. There are too many people who don't have that luxury.

Give scraps to a dog. My mom puts hers in a kong with some peanutbutter for nightly entertainment. I think it's an improvement over the dog pre-cleaning the dishes before they're washed.

I never clean my plate...never have. I'm also thin...not saying that's why but...

If it's something I've made at home I put anything I don't finish back in the tupperware. And I'm going to start composting soon so I won't have to worry about uneaten scraps.

There's some country where you aren't supposed to clean your plate. By leaving a little on the plate, it indicates that you are full. Thailand?

Nope. Not for me. I, like many others, were raised to be members of the Clean Plate Club. It's carried through the subsequent 30 years to still ring in my head at the end of the meal. However, I try to portion out only what I need. So why should I still have to leave some on the plate? Restaurant servings? Oh yes, leave not just a few bites, but half of it! And then take it home.

I think Pollan is pretty spot on about many things, this is not one of them though...

I grew up a member of the clean plate club but it was more self-imposed than enforced;if I enjoy what I am eating-I finish each and every bite. But, i do employ this tactic when I am eating out-especially at restaurants that tend to overdo it on the portioin size. At home, heck no-I serve myself a reasonable portion with an oversized serving of vegetables and more times than not, there is nothing left on the plate afterwards. Now what I need to stop doing is cleaning my 2yr olds plate of the same foods. That's another story....

I feed the leftovers to the boyfriend. Unfortunately he is on a diet now.. so I'm not sure what I'll do with them.

Rarely do I get to the end of my meal and find that I'm not still hungry. On the rare occasion I'm full, then yeah I'll leave something behind, but depriving yourself out of obligation is just as mindless as finishing the meal even when you're already stuffed.

Pollan also advocates eating a largely plant based diet. Any thoughts about composting those plant leftovers?

My daughter recently went to a camp where they were required to finish everything on the plate in the name of not wasting food. She said there was always someone willing to finish the food, all being "growing teenagers."
That goes with Pollan's "rule" about not eating alone!

Anyone else remember being told that children were starving elsewhere and we should finish our food? And we now know that to be true (duh), more so than we were able to comprehend at that age. Eating everything on our (giant plates, giant servings) plates has only been to the detriment of our (industrialized nation) health without considering how the food gets there and how we can get it other places. And how we can make those giant servings (home and elsewhere) more reasonable.

I'm struggling/working on all of the above.

(Apologies, reading a lot of Marion Nestle, Mark Bittman, and Pollan lately.)

I often have to leave the last few bites just because I physically can't eat it, and my GF can never resist cleaning my plate for me :-) Luckily she can eat what she likes and never seems to put on weight. I think it's a family-thing as her mother is much the same but my mother never forced me to finish because she had been forced to by my grandmother and hated it.

I try to serve myself small portions as I can always have more, but sometimes my eyes are larger than my stomach and I get it wrong!

take what you want, eat what you take.