When presented with a plate of delicious food, do you eat all of it? Every last bit? Is the plate pristine at the end of your eating session? Yes? Well, OK, you are a liar.
A recent study in the International Journal of Obesity found that, on average, we eat 92 percent of the food on a plate. Good news (or bad, depending on how you look at it): If the food is unhealthy, that figure goes down to 81 percent.
What does 92 percent of a meal look like? The friendly staff at Grist have compiled a very helpful guide using your — yes, YOUR — diet as an example!
7:46 AM: A bagel! What a nice, wholesome way to start your day. Too bad you’re only eating this much of it.
12:23 PM: Wow, what a terrific-looking salad. Bonus points for the artfully placed radicchio and perfectly halved cherry tomatoes! Sadly, a few of those perfect li’l leaves are going to waste.
5:15 PM: You know a bar is classy when they give you complimentary olives. Thank god, too, because that salad was not very filling, and honestly, that 8 percent was not going to make much of a difference. Either way, you don’t want to look like a pig, so you have to leave at least one behind. It’s better this way.
7:06 PM: Did you really pay $16 for charcuterie? Sorry — no judgment. You are now trying to decide whether devouring the entire thing in 90 seconds will augment the faint nausea you feel after four glasses of rosé, or temper it. But obviously, you are not going to devour the whole thing. Only 92 percent, remember?
9:20 PM: This bar is distinctly less classy. You’ve never even seen Cheetos on a menu before, but you’re not arguing. These are objectively pretty unhealthy! You’re probably only going to eat 81 percent of them.
11:46 PM: Seriously, why are you still here?
12:27 PM: Home, sweet — oh, dear.
1:04 AM: YIKES. Wow. The whole bo — ? OK.
(But not the whole box, really. Only 92 percent.)
10:32 AM: Hi! Good morning! You look great. Fantastic news — because we hate food waste, we saved the little bits of leftover food that you didn’t eat yesterday. Here is what that looks like:
Happy breakfast — enjoy! Wait, where are you going?
