Every time I go eat at my mom's or dad's, they always invariably go "You left some food on the plate" and I have to finish it. Never mind that I'm 36 and married. All of a sudden the weekly dinner at the 'rents turns into a stark reminder that in their eyes I'm still about 6, maybe 7 and that I won't look healthy in their eyes until I'm 300lbs.
Anyway... that got me to thinking about this stupid, almost sadistic, practice of force feeding kids.
Some of you might remember when you were kids that your parents wouldn't let you leave the damn table until you'd finished your food. Never mind if you're not hungry. Never mind that you're full to bursting. YOU EAT THAT FOOD.
It's a wonder they didn't make me lick the plate like a damn dog. A few times I actually vomited, no fooling, and you know what they said? I WAS WASTING FOOD! God... in a sick part of their mind they probably debated making me eat it back up... *shudder*
Anyone remember this from their childhood? Didn't it suck?
I even know where this is from. It's from the fact that my parents grew up so dirt poor (My mom had 17 brothers and sisters and would get a few oranges and apples for Christmas) that they see food as this divine ressource that must never be wasted. It's because of people like them that the "Face of Poverty" in America is still considered hunger. All despite the fact that there are plenty of fat little f**ks on welfare, believe me. Nobody's starving in either Canada or the US unless their parents want their kids to starve. We're a culture that is fatally obsessed with gorging ourselves into heart attacks and strokes. We may not eat well, but we eat... plenty.
Anyone have stories? I'd be interested in listening.
My mom avoided this by giving us small portions, and if we were still hungry after that she would give us a little more. It still happened though, and really the whole reason behind it is because it's a waste of food. Especially if you're poor, if you don't eat whats on your plate it's throwing money away.
One of my friends parents is exactly like that. They are all overweight. Once he turned 18 and moved out though he lost weight. The busy scheduale of work and life led him to only eat when he really was hungry. As a result he has lost weight. He no longer eats just because it is dinner time. He eats only as much as he wants. He does not have to worry about his mother feeling insulted if he does not have a heaping plate of food or go back for seconds. My grandma and grandpa were always the type that would encourage me to eat and say things like "You need to put some meet on your bones"
FORGET GIRLS GONE WILD WE HAVE GOVERNMENT SPENDING GONE WILD!
Wade Jarvis wrote:One of my friends parents is exactly like that. They are all overweight. Once he turned 18 and moved out though he lost weight. The busy scheduale of work and life led him to only eat when he really was hungry. As a result he has lost weight. He no longer eats just because it is dinner time. He eats only as much as he wants. He does not have to worry about his mother feeling insulted if he does not have a heaping plate of food or go back for seconds. My grandma and grandpa were always the type that would encourage me to eat and say things like "You need to put some meet on your bones"
Wait are you saying its not JANNNNEhhhTiK?
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I think the genetic thing is overplayed. Fat parents not only pass their genes along to their children, but their terrible eating habits as well. That really ruins the method of studying obesity along family lines. For some people, they may be genetically disposed to gaining weight, but if they just accept that and don't attempt to control it (we all know people like this), then it becomes 10x worse.
Kids instinctively know how much to eat, and you should never teach them to override their good instincts. Let them eat when they are hungry and only as much as they want to eat. People think they are being good parents by doing this, the opposite is true. Its much like people using "baby talk" around their baby, they don't realize how much they are setting their baby's language development back (since babies are learning computers from day 1 and you are feeding them junk data).
bk3k wrote:I think the genetic thing is overplayed. Fat parents not only pass their genes along to their children, but their terrible eating habits as well. That really ruins the method of studying obesity along family lines. For some people, they may be genetically disposed to gaining weight, but if they just accept that and don't attempt to control it (we all know people like this), then it becomes 10x worse.
Kids instinctively know how much to eat, and you should never teach them to override their good instincts. Let them eat when they are hungry and only as much as they want to eat. People think they are being good parents by doing this, the opposite is true. Its much like people using "baby talk" around their baby, they don't realize how much they are setting their baby's language development back (since babies are learning computers from day 1 and you are feeding them junk data).
i agree with this allot. with my kid, if he's hungry he eats, if hes not im not going to sit there and force food down his throat.
and kids learn their eating habits the majority of time based on their parents eating habits. it amazes me to see these little kids, 4 or 5 years old allreayd getting fat, with bellys and waddling.
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my parents used to tell me the same thing...but it wasnt because i wasnt hungry that i didnt want to eat the food. its because i was always very picky and had very persnickety tastes--something that i havent grown out of yet. an example was that they always tried to make me eat all of my vegetables--especially peas--but i hate vegetables! always have, always will. but they werent trying to make me fat, it was simply them trying to ensure that i ate well. they never made me over indulge if i told them i was full. they just made me put my plate in the fridge in case i got hungry later, so as not to waste it.
i feel the over prevalence of obese kids to poor parents is due to the fact that cheap food is usually bad food. add to that the chance that one or both parents are working to try and supply for their family that they arent there to make sure the kids eat correctly. although the fat kids on welfare is probably due more to their parents not caring and just throwing a bag of chips and other fatty foods at their kids instead of actually getting off their lazy ass and making a nice meal for them...
One must always keep in mind that the "clean your plate concept" is kind of an artifact from a time when American food was much less abundant, and MUCH more healthy. It's sad, but mainly due to the sh!t that passes for food these days, this current generation will be the first to not improve on their parents in terms of lifespan.
So yeah, it's kind of outdated. But it still makes sense when doled out intelligently, for it's primarily about making sure that cries of "Mom, I'm hungry!" don't erupt a mere hour after dinner!
yeah, i went through that as a kid too... kinda sucked. especially during breakfast when the last bit of the cereal was really soggy and nasty. i had to finish it. it certainly wasn't the healthiest habbit for me to learn, and one that i still havn't broken. i still have the "finish it" mentality sometimes. couple that with only getting a 15 minute break at work to chow down my food, it's really hard to take the time to eat slowly and quit when i feel full. instead, i eat everything quickly, still feel hungry cause i don't feel full yet and get something else to top it off. that bad habbit makes me eat most of my meals really quickly. next thing i know, i've taken too much food and im no longer hungry... but i gotta finish it. makes it damn near impossible for me to lose weight, which is pretty frustrating. im nowhere near obease, but i could certainly stand to lose a few pounds. i can see how someone who's a lot more sedentary than i am pack on the pounds pretty quickly under those circumstances.
Two words (especially since Mom isn't hovering over you anymore with a wooden spoon in hand!): PORTION CONTROL.
It works!
cannon im the same way, for some reason if its on the plate i just want to finish it, esp. if its something good. that whole mentallity of stopping when your full when you were grown up on finish your plate is in the back of your head. its funny how you can be extremly wastful on one thing but very concious on what you use or waste on something else. luckily my metabolism is still decent. or id be a whale. ive been working on portion control.
the other thing is that when your younger you can seemingly eat so much, i can remember going to kfc when i was in high school and ordering a 10 piece meal just for myself. my metabolism was so fast i never gained weight no matter how much i ate. now when im putting food on my plate, i still load it up as if im in high school but i can't eat like that anymore, i still do it, and its been a learning process to not load up so much.
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It does get tougher as you age, guys. I think you're 100% right in that your current eating habits are based on your earlier metabolistic ability to stay trim even with mass quantities. I have no doubt that's one reason why the pounds just creep on over the years. It happened to me too, and it took me some years to finally get past it.
It's never to early to start, tho...smaller portions ROCK! Restaurant meals are a great example...they are typically large enough for two meals, so that's what I do...take half home. It doesn't take long for the body to adapt and reduce its volume craving, and once you get used to it, it maintains itelf so long as you don't over-diet or starve yourself...that invariably leads to rebound binging. Results that come slowly, but steadily, are the easiest to maintain. Even if you only lose a pound a week...that's 52 pounds a year. It adds up!
Bill Hahn Jr. wrote:Two words (especially since Mom isn't hovering over you anymore with a wooden spoon in hand!): PORTION CONTROL.
It works!
that's the problem with eating quickly. it's really hard to have portion control when you're still hungry after eating what's already there because your body hasn't had time to tell your brain "im full". besides, it's not like im going back for a second full plate, but a bag of chips or something similar adds up.
I always have to finish whats on my plate. If you don't think you can eat that much don't give yourself that much, you can always go for seconds if you're still hungry. In a restaurant I will finish it because I see it as a waste of money if I don't, and I hate re-heating my food later.
My mother was like this to an extent, she would make us eat smaller portions like someone mentioned above so we would not waste money/food, my sister and I grew up pretty poor, I rem eating a slice of cheese and a cup of tap water for breakfast @ one time. My mother is very smart and had a good job but when you are a single parent and have to raise to kids in NY things get hard.
Anyhow I believe if you have the food on your plate you should eat it (only take as much as you think you can eat)
i hate going to buffets, I see people fill up their plates and eat 2 things and throw it out, Im like wtf, why the hell did you just get all that?!
About the whole obesity thing, growing up I got big because of steroids (i had real bad asthma, every week I was in the hospital, another reason for us being pretty poor), anyway the main thing is that my mom was so scared of our neighborhood she did not let me out because everytime i did I got jumped or someone robbed me so i sat home all day and studied and learned about computers (explaining why im so into them)
long story short; I have a little brother who eats a lot, and I really mean a whole lot and he is 11 but you know what my mother makes him walk on the treadmill at the YMCA for 15 minutes everyday before he can go play games or go swimming and now his belly has gone away and he is looking great and is healthier, hes not even fat anymore. Comes to show if parents teach their kids atleast about some kind of physical activity this obesity stuff would not happen.
Dont know if any of this makes sense but im at work and am typing fast cuz my manager is coming, oh there he goes...oh noes!!!!!!!!!!!! lol
