Breaking Free from the Clean Plate Club
What is the Clean Plate Club?
The "Clean Plate Club" refers to the habit of finishing all the food on your plate, often regardless of whether you're feeling full. While this might sound harmless, it can interfere with your ability to recognize and honor your body’s natural fullness cues. The ability to honor your body, such as a comfortable fullness, is significantly important to your relationship with food and the ability to provide your body with the right amount of nourishment for your individual needs. This behavior is commonly rooted in childhood experiences where well-meaning caregivers encouraged (or insisted on) clearing the plate before leaving the table. While it may begin in childhood for most, it can follow a person for years into adulthood due to the lasting impact it can have on one’s relationship with food.
How Do People Become Part of the Clean Plate Club?
There are various reasons people find themselves in the Clean Plate Club, including:
Parental pressure
Dieting/disordered eating
Rapid eating
Extreme hunger
Food insecurity
What’s the Problem with the Clean Plate Club?
While finishing your plate might seem like a good habit, it can have unintended consequences. Pressuring yourself (or others) to eat past the point of fullness can lead to:
Disrupted hunger and fullness cues: You start listening to external signals (like an empty plate) instead of your body’s intuitive signals.
Mealtime power struggles: For parents, insisting kids clean their plates can lead to stressful battles at the table (which does more harm to everyone involved).
Increased picky eating: Ironically, pressuring kids to eat often results in them liking foods less, not more.
Research shows that forcing or pressuring children to eat can negatively affect their relationship with food. It may lead to eating fewer vegetables, increased picky eating, emotional eating, and even reduced overall food intake. The risk of disordered habits and overriding body cues that come from the clean plate club has significant implications that have the potential to stick with someone for a lifetime.
Side Effects of Being in the Clean Plate Club
Consistently eating until your plate is empty, rather than until you're physically comfortable and satisfied, can result in:
Feeling uncomfortably full, and therefore going too long before eating again (feeling extremely hungry)
Overeating
Guilt or shame around food
Digestive discomfort, bloating, or heartburn
Fatigue or sluggishness
Disordered eating patterns
How to Leave the Clean Plate Club
Ready to break free from the habit of automatically finishing everything on your plate? Here are three steps to help you get started:
Tune Out External Noise
Are you relying on portion control tools, calorie-tracking apps, or "rules" about when and how much to eat? These external monitors can interfere with your internal ones, like natural hunger cues. Instead, focus on creating a calm, distraction-free environment during meals — put your phone away, set the table, slow down, and listen to your body.Check-In with Your Body
Before and during meals, pause to notice how you feel. Are you hungry? Are you starting to feel full? Are you eating out of habit, emotion, or because someone told you to? This process might feel awkward at first — just like learning to drive — but with practice, it will become second nature.Shift Your Mindset
Remind yourself that it’s okay to leave food on your plate. There is no reward for cleaning your plate and overriding your fullness, just like there is no reward for being the one who eats less. Removing the morality that is tied to food and how much you eat of it will help you find your natural cues. Use affirmations like:
"It’s safe for me to slow down and listen to my body."
"I don’t have to finish everything on my plate just because it’s there."
"I can save this food for later; it doesn’t have to be eaten all at once."
But What About Food Waste?
It's natural to worry about wasting food, but consider this: the actual monetary value of a few leftover bites is often minimal. Is it worth feeling uncomfortably full over fifty cents' worth of food? Probably not. It is a far greater risk (and consequence) to dishonor your body’s natural cues and needs (which could result in disordered eating or eating disorders) than it is to prioritize food waste. Here are some ways to manage food waste without compromising your health:
Save Leftovers: Designate a day for "leftover lunches" where everyone in the family can pick from a variety of saved dishes.
Compost: If possible, compost food scraps to nourish the soil and reduce waste.
Serve Smaller Portions: Start with smaller amounts of food and allow yourself or your children to go back for more if still hungry.
Family-Style Meals: Let everyone serve themselves from shared dishes so they can take what they want and need.
How to Avoid Passing On the Clean Plate Club to Your Kids
If you’re a parent or caregiver, here are some tips to help children develop a healthy relationship with food:
Start Small: Serve small portions and let kids ask for more if they're still hungry. This reduces food waste, prevents overwhelm, and encourages them to explore their body cues.
Encourage Exploration: Use play to make mealtime fun — have a crunch contest or explore the colors and textures of different foods.
Respect Their Cues: Allow children to stop eating when they feel full, even if their plate isn’t empty.
Avoid Food Pressure: Refrain from comments like "just one more bite" or "finish your vegetables." These can create negative associations with food or prevent them from honoring their cues and preferences.
Leaving the Clean Plate Club isn’t about wasting food — it’s about honoring your body’s signals and fostering a healthier relationship with eating. By practicing mindfulness at meals and encouraging others to do the same, you can create a more positive, enjoyable, and nourishing experience at the table and with all foods. Are you ready to leave the Clean Plate Club? Book an appointment with one of our dietitians today.
References:
Galloway AT, Fiorito LM, Francis LA, Birch LL. ‘Finish your soup’: counterproductive effects of
pressuring children to eat on intake and affect. Appetite. 2006 May;46(3):318-23. doi:
10.1016/j.appet.2006.01.019. Epub 2006 Apr 19. PMID: 16626838; PMCID: PMC2604806.Galindo L, Power TG, Beck AD, Fisher JO, O’Connor TM, Hughes SO. Predicting preschool
children’s eating in the absence of hunger from maternal pressure to eat: A longitudinal study
of low-income, Latina mothers. Appetite. 2018 Jan 1;120:281-286. doi:
10.1016/j.appet.2017.09.007. Epub 2017 Sep 9. PMID: 28899652; PMCID: PMC5680110.Jansen PW, de Barse LM, Jaddoe VWV, Verhulst FC, Franco OH, Tiemeier H. Bi-directional
associations between child fussy eating and parents’ pressure to eat: Who influences whom?
Physiol Behav. 2017 Jul 1;176:101-106. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2017.02.015. Epub 2017 Feb PMID: 28215424; PMCID: PMC5436628.Houldcroft L, Farrow C, Haycraft E. Perceptions of parental pressure to eat and eating
behaviours in preadolescents: the mediating role of anxiety. Appetite. 2014 Sep;80:61-9. doi:
10.1016/j.appet.2014.05.002. Epub 2014 May 6. PMID: 24816324.Ellis JM, Galloway AT, Webb RM, Martz DM, Farrow CV. Recollections of pressure to eat
during childhood, but not picky eating, predict young adult eating behavior. Appetite. 2016 Feb
1;97:58-63. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2015.11.020. Epub 2015 Nov 22. PMID: 26593103.
