Do you eat mindlessly?

A recent Popular Science article outlines the concept of college students eating mindlessly and what some schools are doing to combat the waste produced by this habit. The concept has been proven through numerous studies and simply states that "the bigger you're plate, the more you'll eat."

We have all seen this first-hand in our cafeteria experience, where there is so much good (looking) food, that we just pile it on our trays. The problem is that this causes us to either eat more, or throw away more. Neither of which is good.

A number of schools have started to experiment with this idea by removing trays from the cafeteria. If there are no trays, students only get what they can carry. They could, of course, go back in line for more, but we all know that college students are lazy. These trayless lunches have seemed to work by decreasing waste, in some cases, by 30-50%.

The director of dining services at Colby College—another institution investigating going trayless—says “students don’t want to go back up and get another glass. It’s a convenience factor. We’re so used to having everything all the time whenever we want it.” Glad to see that we're finally using our sloth for good.

Although I think they keep a lot of leftovers, I have seen UIUC cafeterias waste a lot of food on a daily basis. I wonder if the trayless cafeteria concept will ever be instituted at the U of I. As students, we could just watch how we fill our tray with food and make sure we eat everything we get. Our main challenge today, is understanding that age-old statement that my Grandma used to tell me: "You're eyes are bigger than your stomach."

College Cafeterias Go Trayless - Popular Science