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Sunday, November 30, 2008

Lovin' Those Left Overs

I stopped in at a fast-food restaurant for lunch today, as I often do, and ordered something off the menu. I won't tell you what it was, but I will say this... it wasn't a salad. (I don't believe in counting calories, I believe in portion control.)

As I waited for my order to be prepared, I took a look at a rack which had brochures containing nutrition information for everything the restaurant sold. There was also a placard giving ten tips on how to lose weight.

Nine of the ten tips given were fine, but one tip enraged me. "Always try to leave a bit of food on your plate."

Never!

My sister was guilty of this. She, her husband, and their four-year old son lived with us for a month while they were searching for their own place (having just returned from life overseas.) Although the boy consistently showed that he didn't have much of an appetite, either my sister or her husband consistently gave him a plate with an adult-sized portion of food, encouraging him to eat it, but saying, "If you leave a bit, that's okay."

And he always left about two-thirds of the food on his plate. Yet the next night, he'd get the same amount of food.

All this did, in my opinion, was to encourage the kid that wasting food was okay.

My point is.... don't waste food. There is nothing to be proud of in leaving a third or a fourth of your meal on your plate to be thrown away. (The exception, of course, is if you don't throw it away, but rather wrap it up in foil and have it for breakfast or lunch the next day. In that case, the practice is fine!)

American restaurants, for the most part, are guilty of giving their patrons very large servings of food. I'm not talking about fast food restaurants, but sit-down restaurants where you typically get an entree and three "sides." (How long this will go on is problematical, as the government will undoubtedly soon be legislating the size of the servings restaurants are allowed to serve.)

There is a simple solution... instead of forcing yourself to eat all the food given you, and instead of wasting it by throwing it away, simply ask for a doggie bag, take it home, and have it for lunch the next day. I do this all the time, and frankly, no matter how good the food was the night before, it always seems to taste better the next day!

Now I'm sure many of you do that already, but many more don't...whether because they're embarrassed to ask for a doggie bag or what have you. Well, don't be embarrassed. Think of it as getting your money's worth, which is needed now more than ever, in these tough economic times.

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