Adults are more apt than kids to clean their plates

cartoon
 

If you eat pretty much everything you put on your plate, you’re not alone. A new Cornell study shows that the average adult eats 92 percent of what he or she puts on his or her plate.

“If you put it on your plate, it’s going into your stomach,” says Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and the lead author of the study, which is forthcoming in the International Journal of Obesity.

Wansink and co-author Katherine Abowd Johnson, a student at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, analyzed the consumption of 1,179 diners and concluded that we’re a “clean plate planet.” The results were nearly identical in six other developed countries studied: Canada, France, Taiwan, Korea, Finland and the Netherlands. If we serve it, we’ll eat it regardless of gender or nationality, Wansink says.

However, the finding did not hold true with children. The analysis of 326 participants under 18 years old showed that the average child eats only 59 percent of what he or she serves.

“This might be because kids are less certain about whether they will like a particular food,” says Wansink. “Regardless, this is good news for parents who are frustrated that their kids don’t clean their plate. It appears few of them do.”

Wansink says that these findings can positively impact an individual’s eating behavior. “Just knowing that you’re likely to consume almost all of what you serve yourself can help you be more mindful of appropriate portion size,” Wansink says.

His advice: The next time you grab that serving spoon, think to yourself, “How much do I want to eat?” and serve accordingly.

The study, “The Clean Plate Club: About 92 Percent of Self-Served Food is Eaten,” was funded by Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab.

Media Contact

Melissa Osgood