When is the last time you left food on your plate? Did you feel guilty after doing so? Or did you go ahead and finish whatever was on your plate, even though you were already full?

Is it a Faulty Belief System?

Do you feel strongly about wasting food? This could be due to the belief system ingrained into you when you were growing up.

But is it a valid belief system? You should definitely not waste food. But that should not come at the price of you storing that extra food in your thighs or bellies. The belief is faulty if it jeopardizes your well-being.

This is precisely what it does. Being forced to finish the food on your plate, you end up storing the extra calories as fat.

What about the starving children in Africa

“Finish up your food. Be thankful for the food on your plate. There are children in Africa that are starving.”

How many times have you heard this when growing up? I have heard this thousands of times. I would gladly eat every morsel of food if I knew it would help reduce starvation in Africa. I am still waiting for someone to come forward and show me how stuffing myself will help reduce starvation in Africa.

What ever does not end up in the trash will end up as fat in your belly

All the calories that you over eat will end up as fat. I would rather have a lots of extra trash than to have even a little extra fat on my body. It would cost more money and effort to lose the fat as compared to the cost of the food if it was thrown away.

Scarcity Mentality

This belief actually stems from a scarcity mentality. We live in an age of abundance. There is more than enough food available. Off course the food does not reach everyone. But there is enough.

Stop perpetuating this belief

Do not force your children to eat beyond what they are comfortable with. Let them decide when they are full. When children are hungry, they will definitely let you know. Have you seen how persistent and impatient a hungry baby is? By forcing children to finish the food on their plates, you could already be planting the seeds of weight gain.

Take a minute and evaluate how you deal with extra food on your plate. Do you try and finish the extra food? Is this doing any good or is this adding to the waistline?

What are your thoughts on this? Do you finish the food on your plate? Or do you finish the food and feel guilty about it afterwards?