‘water is wet.’ people who eat more will have higher BMI, generally.
Exactly why I asked for a cite.
not the issue. and keep in mind most of the discussion is eating (and enjoying) the healthier things on their plate. Leaving over french fries is not the same as leaving over broccoli. But it is not about the food, it is about the instilled habits.
The issue is whether forcing kids to clean the plate will cause them to eat more as adults. I believe it does, but no, no study to cite, without doing the same research we all can do
I don’t think it’s at all obvious that “clearing your plate” is associated with “eating more”. I generally choose how much food to put on my plate, and i think that has a more obvious impact on the amount i eat than whether i leave a couple of green beans on the plate at the end of my meal.
Just because i couldn’t find a study in five minutes of googling hardly means the research hasn’t been done and published. 
My oldest decided he liked ham when he was little. So we started telling him all sorts of things were ham.
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Agreed with @Lucy, my two minutes of Google didn’t turn up an actual conclusion of “clean-plate” → adult obesity, but it does relate to childhood obesity and I think it’s obvious that childhood obesity correlates to adult obesity. Doesn’t have to be ubiquitous.
My daughter who hates fish loved my wife’s Tuna Casserole, we just called it Casserole, and she never questioned the ingredients
Sounds like we’re similar to a lot of other people on here. Kids need to try everything. If we aren’t sure if they’ll like it we try to not give them too much so they can finish it. If it’s something they’ve eaten before and they suddenly don’t like it, we’ll usually make them finish it before they can eat something else.
Naw, that wasn’t our style. We never made the kids finish anything. Maybe their tastes changed, maybe they weren’t hungry today. They needed to take a bite of everything, but they could decide they didn’t want to finish something.
We even let them eat dessert if they didn’t finish dinner. Nothing wrong with “saving some room”.
My husband won’t eat “fish”, but likes canned tuna fish and is willing to eat fish-sticks. He mixes up tuna for his sandwiches himself, and I’m pretty sure he knows that tuna came from a fish.
He is willing to admit he doesn’t eat fish because “anything that lived in water is icky”. And when his nutritionist suggested he eat snacks with more protein and less carbs, he decided that we would learn to eat nuts. My daughter and I gave him advice on mild-flavored nuts. (Almonds and hazelnuts. Not walnuts.)
I did mention that my household is headed by two adults who are both picky eaters. 
I said I didn’t like the long stems on the spinach and when I was cutting some of them off she told me just to eat it. I like spinach but not the long stems.
For her childhood, I think the Clean Plate Club was more of economy and practicality.
Related: The veggies we eat today are different from the ones I ate as a kid. Preparation for sure but they’ve also been modified. Brussels sprouts are a good example.
It’s not just boiled vs roasted, it’s that they are not as bitter today as they were 20+ years ago.
100% true, they’ve been modified/bred to be much better nowadays.
But any boiled Brussels sprouts are an abomination.
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I’ve always liked brussels sprouts. My wife roasts them. Yum.
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She is not an advocate of continuing the Clean Plate Club (should respect the body’s satiety clues) but thinks the difference in our levels of food pickiness is in part due to our upbringings.
Aren’t you an Only Child?
Boiled is ok, but they better have a kick-ass butter sauce.
I cook chopped up bacon half way. Toss the Brussels sprouts in the bacon, fat, salt, pepper, garlic powder and roast. So so good.
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Same. Add a balsamic drizzle at the end, maybe mix with caramelized onions.
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I’d eat that.
Yes.