Are you a member of the "Clean Plate Club"?

As a child, my parents insisted that I finish all the food on my plate. That's because children in China were starving. I didn't think to ask how the food I didn't eat was supposed to get to the Chinese. Nor did I understand then that it was really Jewish hunger in my parent's lifetime that was behind their directive.

What my parents didn't realize was that it's normal for us to clean our plates.

Human beings are natural eaters. We're born that way. It's the strategy that worked for survival – eat all you can, as fast as you can, because who knows when you'll eat again.

It worked well for our ancestors. But these days it hasn't served us well at all. Our response to a continuous supply of abundant food is to keep eating more and more of it. Regardless of the amount of food on our plates, it's our nature to finish it all.

What can you do to counter the "clean plate club" instinct?

Start with portion control – the amount of food that you eat.

A serving is not necessarily the amount you decide to put on your plate. It's a specific amount of food defined by measurements like grams, ounces or cups.

Normal serving sizes are smaller than you think. For example, one portion of bread is the size of a cassette tape. Now think about the last bagel you ate. Most likely it was three or four times that size! (Click here for a guide to portion sizes http://www.webmd.com/diet/printable/portion-control-size-guide)

Fill your plate in the kitchen and bring it to the table. Store whatever's left before there's a chance to eat it. When leftovers are out of sight, they're out of mind.

Most of us underestimate the amount of food we eat by 20%. So when you're filling your plate, dish out 20% less than what you want. There's only one exception: when it comes to low-calorie salad and vegetables (not potatoes!), serve yourself 20% more.

Use smaller serving dishes. The smaller your plate, the less you'll eat.

Next: Children and the "Clean Plate Club"