Does The "Eat Everything On Your Plate" Mentality Stem From The Great Depression or Poor Families?

Question

My parents were big on the whole "eat everything on your plate" thing; the reason that my fathr is now over 250lbs.

I was wondering if this behavior stemmed from growing up after the great depression when everything was scarce or especially from low-income families. Some older generations had this mentality and others do not so i was wondering where that mentality came from.

Answer 1

Famine is the main scare for that mentality. People who for one reason or another suffered from famine at one point in their life, are the traditional users of that idea. The WWII generation, were the people who went through that ordeal in many European countries, and that has left its mark.
I too, am on the same as your father range of weight and although I was also raised with the same scary tactic, was not before my late 30's more than 80-85 kilos.
Nowadays the scare is base on "Eat all your food. We mustn't throw it out. People are starving".
So the problem has been moved to another level. Plus we all carry the hereditary genes of our obesity , which in turn we pass to the next generation. Apart from the fact that youngsters of today are born with obvious obesity problems.

Answer 2

I believe it does come from the depression and war years.
My mom used to make us clear our plate but she also never had any "junk"foods in the house. After school snack was an apple or carrot sticks,she was big on vitamins and lots of milk for our bones.
We can't really criticize the older generations if we haven't gone though what they have.My step-dad grew up in the 1930's depression and had to get extra food from the trash can,he grew up in a small minning town in Penn.
My mom was lucky because her mom was the cook to a wealthy family and was able to bring some extra food home.
During the war in the 1940's in Europe, my mother-in-law said people were forced to eat dead horses and dogs and cats.
I am a normal weight but still never waste food, don't take it if yu can't eat it.Many people are still starving so I also think it is wrong to waste food.I live in Las vegas where there are so many all-you-can-eat buffets and there is so much waste.

Answer 3

Yep! It sure did. My parents grew up during the depression and were dirt-poor. My mother always did that to us when we didn't finnish our plates. She also did the whole guilt trip thing about people over seas having nothing to eat so, we'd eat more even though we were full and spend the rest of the day being miserable. She even does it to her self at times which often results in vomiting afterward.

Answer 4

you're on the right music. The mentality got here from the undeniable fact that foodstuff wasn't low priced so dropping foodstuff wasn't authorized of. infants being choosy eaters by using nature, making them attempt each and every foodstuff placed earlier them could guarantee that they does no longer skip hungry at night. The rotund look became in decrease back contained in the Victorian era so making young ones devour lots to realize that look became the norm. This form became surpassed down from era and endured contained in the trail of the large melancholy whilst foodstuff and jobs have been scarce.

Answer 5

For me personally, we make our kids finish as much as they can because they are notorious for asking for something to eat an hour after dinner is done. I try to teach them to get full at their meal time so they aren't snacking too much especially before bed time. If they are full we don't make them eat it all but we tell them that's it for the night!