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Comment by yaks_hairbrush | Hacker News Reader

Recently, one of my in-laws told my kid that she ought to eat everything on her plate. I responded "If she's full, the food is wasted whether she eats it or it goes in the trash."

I'll bet that pushes the percentage up to ~60%, since the article only talks about food thrown in the trash.

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At home, you should be eating everything on the plate. If you are regularly getting full from that, that is a sign you are taking/making too much food in the first place. In that case, the waste occurred before the food was put on the plate.

Or, in the case of one's kids, putting too much food on their plate to begin with. Assuming one's kids aren't in charge of their own portion control.

I'd argue that the waste occurs when you take more than you need - making too much of something isn't waste unless you don't keep your leftovers.

Why would you throw uneaten food in the trash? Just put it in the fridge and eat it later.

I love leftover day, it's the easiest and cheapest meal of the week.

Not everything is good as leftovers. A fair amount of Chinese food, salads, and cooked vegetables don't reheat well or don't make good leftovers.

Isn't that the kind of not-valuing-food mentality the article talks about? Your reheated vegetables are going to be overcooked and your fried-and-sauced Chinese will get soggy, but they're still edible. They still provide sustenance.

I love fine food, but not every meal has to be amazingly delicious. In the end, it's about putting energy into your body, so why not lower your standards a bit and eat last night's soggy orange chicken for lunch?

As an aside, you can improve your leftovers with proper preparation. For example, yaks_hairbrush above claims that chicken strips and fries don't reheat well, but I reheat fried foods in the oven regularly, and they're perfectly edible.

>>They still provide sustenance.

People who have luxury don't really worry about sustenance.

The meal was chicken strips and fries from a restaurant kid's meal. Does not do well as leftovers.

Oh, well I guess the first problem is that you should probably be feeding your children food.

So, we're agreed that it's good that she didn't clear her plate on that meal?

Yeah, com'n people - little common sense here.

1) If everyone is leaving food on their plate, cook smaller portions.

2) If occasionally there is food on the plate, or it just kids "being kids", stick it in the fridge.

I agree with the very top post - food is simply wasted out of laziness in the US.

"I agree with the very top post - food is simply wasted out of laziness in the US."

Did you actually read the article? It had several reasons for the wasting to occur...

EDIT: grammar.

Eating more than you should is infinitely worse than wasting food. How much food can one person waste in their lifetime? How much healthcare can they consume?

America is in the middle of a diabetes epidemic. Diabetes-related vascular disease is now the number one cause of lower-limb amputation. At current trends, the US will have the highest rate of lower-limb amputation in the world within two decades. That's the issue we should be shocked about.

The whole world is on the verge of a diabetes epidemic. And there is hardly anything stopping it.

The issue is we evolved over several thousands of years to do physical work and suddenly we are all doing none of it.

> "If she's full, the food is wasted whether she eats it or it goes in the trash."

That's simply not correct.

If you take in more calories than you need right now, your body will simply store them away for later, and you can eat a little less later on.

> If you take in more calories than you need right now, your body will simply store them away for later, and you can eat a little less later on.

Given that it's a lot easier to overeat than to undereat in today's USA, the rest of chain proceeds as follows:

While you can eat a little less later on, you probably won't. Rather, due to eating while already full, your stomach will expand, and you will thereby overeat at subsequent meals (because food is plentiful). Eventually you will be at risk for health complications due to weight. An early death due to weight-related causes is surely a great waste of those extra calories.

>Given that it's a lot easier to overeat than to undereat in today's USA....

Who said this was going to be easy? Why is everyone always looking for the "easiest" solution? We're talking about doing the right thing (TM), not the easiest.

I see what you're saying, I don't think that line of reasoning has to be true.

You're saying that if I choose to fill my gas tank instead of my weekly $40, I'll drive more and more and more. Not true. By filling my tank today, I'll still drive the same amount as normal, I just won't need to visit the gas station as often as usual.

Often when I'm cooking dinner, I'll say something like "I don't need a lot, I had a huge lunch" etc. The opposite works well too. i.e. "It's only 11am and I'm starving, because I had a tiny breakfast."

Limiting how many calories you eat by throwing out the "extras" is like limiting how far you drive by pumping "extra" gas onto the ground.

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