Saving food doesn't have to be a brain melting process, in fact, you can do so with less hassle than you thought. There are countless of resources across the internet on food saving tips and tricks (especially on our website wastelessfeedbetter.org). Speaking of which, there are also psychological tricks nowadays you can try out now to help save food in a new light.
Interesting Ways You Can Start Saving Food Now
Use a bigger plate
By switching to a bigger plate, it can result to consuming more for some people, because when you're using a bigger plate it tricks the brain into thinking the same amount of food looks smaller. This trick is influenced by the weight loosing method, where dieters would eat on a smaller plates to make the food portion look bigger. This also suggests the reason why buffets provide such big plates, a great tip to keep in mind when eating in buffets to prevent over eating. Don't be fooled!
Eat from Grey, Black, Brown, and Purple plates
This is another psychological trick where different colours you eat in can affect your appetite, similar to #1 tip. People are more likely to overeat in yellow, orange, and red environments, whereas, when eating in grey, black, brown, or purple environments/plates, it can suppress appetite. However, the end goal of this trick isn't here to suppress your appetite and starve, it is to help prevent overconsumption. Our goal is try not to waste food, and be sure to finish what you buy.
Increasing your Appetite
Increasing your appetite allows you to consume more, preventing unnecessary foods going to waste. In order to increase your appetite, you can look at some following tips:
- Add more calories in your meals: In order to increase your appetite, you have to ensure you are eating enough through out the day. You can do this by adding more calorie rich ingredients in your meals, or eat your more of your favourite foods. But try to avoid snacks as they lack nutrients.
- Make mealtime more fun: Cooking/eating with families and friends can help stimulate appetite than eating alone. You can also create more incentive to eat by posing your cooking/meals via social media.
- DON'T SKIP BREAKFAST: Study has shown that skipping breakfast can lead you to eat less throughout the day as eating breakfast can increase the body's thermogenesis, essentially helps the body to burn more calories, increasing your appetite.
- Workout: Working out or exercising can burn calories, which can increase the desire for food, another great way to increase food in take.
If you are facing difficulty in consuming less (to the point where there are frequent left overs), you can consider trying out tip #1 & #2. However, this article is not here to promote you into eat less, it is here to prevent overconsumption by using psychological methods, making food saving more easy and extra interesting.
Though despite the vast numbers of food saving tips and tricks you can use, it is important to always recall "buy what is enough, do not over buy" , as this is the most basic and most fundamental concept in saving food that everyone should know.
Make sure you are able to finish what you buy.