Most Adults Finish Most of What’s on Their Plates

iStock/Thinkstock(ITHACA, N.Y.) — All those lectures about finishing your dinner because there are kids starving somewhere else evidently sunk in as most adults apparently finish what’s on their plates.

And it’s not just Americans who are polishing off their plates of food. People in other countries also belong to what Cornell University researchers are branding the Clean Plate Club.

Study co-authors Brian Wansink and Katherine Abowd Johnson says that in their survey of diners from the U.S., Canada, France, Taiwan, Korea, Finland, and the Netherlands, the average adult will consume about 92 percent of what’s on their plate.

Johnson explains, “Part of why we finish most of what we serve is because we are aware enough to know how much we’ll want in the first place.”

However, before we start patting ourselves on the backs for not wasting food, the same doesn’t hold true for those under 18.

In an accompanying study, Wansink and Johnson found out that younger eaters only managed to finish 59 percent of what’s on their plate, mostly because they’re unfamiliar with some of the food.

If there’s any consolation to parents, according to the researchers, it’s that it seems to be a universal thing among younger children and adolescents.

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