When Reducing Food Waste Leads to Overeating: Understanding an Overlooked Household Trade-off

by Haoran Yang

Food waste has become one of the most pressing global challenges of our time. Every year, enormous quantities of edible food are discarded, creating economic losses, wasting natural resources, and contributing to environmental damage. As a result, governments, international organizations, and advocacy campaigns increasingly encourage households to reduce food waste.

At the same time, another major challenge is growing across the world: overweight and obesity. Excessive food intake is associated with a wide range of health problems, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and reduced quality of life.

These two issues are usually studied separately. Researchers investigating food waste focus on why people throw food away. Researchers studying obesity focus on why people eat too much. However, everyday household experiences suggest that the two problems may actually be connected.

Many people have encountered situations where food remains after a meal. Once everyone is full, households often face a choice: throw the remaining food away or continue eating it. Because wasting food is often viewed negatively, some individuals may choose to eat more than they need in order to avoid discarding food. In this situation, reducing food waste does not eliminate waste entirely. Instead, it may shift waste from the bin to the body.

My study explores this overlooked trade-off.

A key idea behind this research is that food consumed beyond an individual’s nutritional needs should also be considered when discussing wasteful food-related behaviour. Traditional definitions of food waste focus almost exclusively on food that is discarded. However, food that is unnecessarily overconsumed can also generate costs, including health risks, medical expenditures, and broader social consequences.

To explore this question, I examined what happens when people reach the end of a meal and still have food left on their plates. In these situations, many people face a familiar dilemma: should they throw the food away or eat more than they actually need? My research investigates how this everyday decision can influence both food waste and eating behaviour.

The analysis suggests that people are more likely to overeat when they strongly dislike wasting food or when a larger amount of food remains at the end of a meal. In other words, the effort to reduce food waste can sometimes unintentionally encourage excessive consumption.

I then tested these ideas using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, a large household survey covering thousands of individuals. The empirical findings support the theoretical predictions. Individuals facing larger amounts of potential food waste are more likely to engage in overeating as a strategy to avoid discarding food. The relationship also varies across different types of nutrients and foods, suggesting that the trade-off is more complex than a simple choice between eating and throwing food away.

My research also explores how household relationships may influence food-related decisions. Because meals are often shared, choices about food consumption and food waste can be affected by the behaviour and needs of other family members. This broader perspective highlights the importance of considering social and family contexts when studying food-related behaviour.

Overall, my research suggests that food waste and overeating should not always be treated as separate problems. Policies that focus exclusively on reducing discarded food may overlook unintended health consequences if they encourage people to consume food they do not need. Effective interventions should therefore seek a balance between reducing waste and promoting healthy diets.

More broadly, the findings point to a simple but important principle: responsible food use is not only about avoiding waste, but also about avoiding unnecessary consumption. By bringing together insights from food economics, nutrition, and household decision-making, this research highlights that not all food saved from the bin creates social benefits if it ultimately generates health costs elsewhere. Understanding this trade-off can help policymakers design more balanced strategies for both sustainable consumption and public health. In this sense, the study resonates with a broader vision of sustainability that values moderation and responsible use of resources, rather than focusing solely on the reduction of visible waste.

Haoran Yang

Yang is an economist with research interests in health, agricultural, and behavioural economics. He received his PhD in Economics from Sapienza University of Rome and is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford. His work focuses on food consumption, nutrition, food waste, and food insecurity, combining economic theory and empirical analysis to better understand how individual and household behaviours influence health and sustainability outcomes.

2025-2026 EoF Academy Fellow.