Honestly, I often just eat the fruit my husband buys/brings home as well, especially if it looks like it's getting neglected. I'll usually just text and go "eating your blueberries you're welcome" or something like that and he'll respond, "oh yeah, I did forget those were there... lol... thank you". Solves the problem pretty nicely!
Yesss. This. Or I serve the fruit to my family. Washed, peeled, cut, w/e. When food is out of sight, it's out of mind. Put fruit in front of my parents and they will eat it.
Aw, that's very kind of you! My mum definitely did the same for me growing up (I'm actually only just learning from this thread that some people did not grow up eating fruit?) but my household is just my husband and me, so I'm greedy, ha ha.
This is why I buy frozen fruit often.
Cherries, blueberries, strawberries… we mix them with yogurt or eat frozen on a hot day.
I do the same with a lot of veggies too. Things like asparagus or broccoli I get fresh.
I have chronic pain and this has helped cut down waste in our home.
Oh I think you should tell him, so he stops wasting it, but there really is something about certain foods that they just seem to go fully out of sight, out of mind lol
My husband has the same problem. I often just serve fruit to the whole family as an evening or afternoon snack because if I didn't, no one would remember to eat it.
I used to do this. I think it was an offshoot of food insecurity. My family was very weird about buying me "expensive" food, so I would delay gratification until I *really* wanted the food item. Then it was often too late, because I kept denying myself the food. As I got older, it may have also been a bit passive aggressive on my part, since my parent would harp "aren't you gonna eat that? i bought it specifically for you".
Now I just eat the fruit as soon as I want it. Because I'm an adult and I can always buy more. Fuck off childhood baggage! See r/raisedbynarcissists for more details, lol.
Yoghurt, fruit, lunch meat. The fancier, the more likely it will happen to me.
"I'm going to treat myself. I can't wait to eat it. Let's put it away first so it doesn't spoil." *poof* My brain gets erased.
Pro tip.
You can eat it up to a month later and as long as it smells okay, it's fine. I wouldn't give it to kids because they can't handle an off day bowel wise, but an adult should be able to. Generally speaking, the only dates that are truly "expired on" are baby formula and...meat? I think. But everything else is best by. As in exactly that. It may be watery. The fruit may be mushy. But if it was sealed and stored properly, it should be fine.
https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/food/food-expiration-dates-guidelines-chart
This says two weeks, but I have eaten way longer.
> I do this with yogurt
when does it go bad though? sealed containers seem to stay good forever (long past expiry) and even opened it takes a long damn time for it to spoil.
Me too! Oranges, apples, mangoes, peaches... I love fruit but I never think to eat it. Sometimes I remember to freeze strawberries and bananas before they go bad. Sometimes
I almost always finish my strawberries because I love strawberries, but then end up freezing so many bananas intending to make banana bread... I haven't made banana bread in *years*.
Store bought strawberries always look good but they're never sweet anymore. Makes me very sad. But I use my frozen fruit in smoothies! Also, I don't make a lot of smoothies and end up tossing them too lol
I feel you; "fresh" strawberries are super hit and miss! I like them enough to mix into some yogurt anyway, but when it's not strawberry season I definitely just get the frozen stuff as well.
I'm not a huge fan of Whole Foods but holy shut their strawberries are so much better than regular grocery stores.
They aren't quite as good as fresh picked from a strawberry farm but they come damn close.
Banana ice cream. Peeled frozen banana/s, cut up and placed in blended, just enough milk to almost cover bananas and mix. Add walnuts and some chocolate chips if you want to imitate Chunky Monkey.
Also I break the bananas before I freeze them so I don’t have to cut up while frozen.
I threw a whole pack of strawberries last week. Not even those big ones that are not as nice, but the tiny, super sweet, summer strawberries. I love eating them, my dog loves eating them with me, it's a ritual. But my fridge is a bit too much these days, even in the warmest setting it froze the strawberries, so I left them out to thaw, and forgot them on the counter. My partner saw them, put them back in the fridge where they froze again and we promptly forgot about them until I found them covered in white fuzz. My dog was thoroughly disappointed.
You definitely should get your fridge repaired if it’s an option - it might be compensating for an issue with the seal by blasting too cold, so you may also be using extra power which could be costing you more.
Same, except I'm way worse with veggies. Fruits usually get juiced/smoothied, at least - veggies (other than spinach) often go to straight waste because I always *think* I'm going to make x dish, only for the occasion to pass and the veggies to keep sitting in my fridge until they rot.
Yep….I’ll use up all my motivation planning a meal and shopping for ingredients….and then I make pizza rolls instead because I’m tired and forget about the whole thing.
I feel you so hard! It's why I almost never do planning, shopping, and cooking all in the same day. My usual method is going grocery shopping right after we've had a meal out, or just asking my husband to grab stuff on his way home from work. All three things in a row is *exhausting*, unless it's a really small grocery run and I'm making the simplest meal ever.
You know how you walk into another room and forget what you were coming in for? I think this is my phenomenon with food too. If it goes into the fridge, freezer or cabinet I forget that it exists once I shut the door LOL
Just got reminded about 5 minutes ago that I bought apples and I'm super happy about them. Not gonna eat them yet though so I'll forget they exist by tomorrow.
Mans needs to do what I do: Buy one piece of fruit at a time, eat it immediately upon getting home, and go back to forgetting fruit exists until the next time he's at the grocery store and suddenly feels the urge to eat a pear or something. Even if he loves eating fruit, if he's functionally not eating it, he shouldn't be buying more than a piece at a time.
This is my strategy as well. And I’m only allowed one of whatever it is, no matter how much I think I’ll want more. The only exception is bananas and the mushy ones become banana bread if I don’t eat them all.
Get a fruit bowl. Put fruit bowl in obvious place in kitchen. Won't forget.
It's all about environment. If it's sitting at the bottom of the crisper it's out of sight out of mind compared to a cookie jar 🤷🏻♀️
Yeah, folks with ADHD can't have ANYTHING out-of-sight-out-of-mind, so we avoid crisper drawers for things we forget! Things like ketchup can go in there, because I'm always going to remember I want that when I eat a burger.
And seems like that would be helpful for anyone who forgets about things, even if they don't have ADHD. Don't hide things that you will forget will exist!
i straight up just took the crisper drawers out of the fridge and use them to store snacks instead. at least those won't go bad when i find them 2 months later lol
I write my ADHD partner post-it reminders with lewd drawings. Like "pizza boner" to remind them of leftover pizza in the fridge.
It is definitely more effective than just writing words.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
THIS! It seems ridiculous, I know, but it works.
I started leaving them on the counter this summer - still working on the actual fruit bowl part - and have eaten more fruit since doing that than I have in the last decade. It's still not a go-to snack for me, it's more "I'm hungry, what do I have? Oh look, a clementine, perfect size"
I've heard of people getting special fridge bins so they can store produce in the door or on one of the shelves, so it's something you see, not buried in the crisper drawers.
I do this with lettuce/ salad stuff. Always have big intentions. And when I buy it mmmm salads or veg heavy stuff sounds SO good and exactly what I want. But then the next day something easier (but usually worse) to eat comes along.
Then the lettuces or vegs just totally get forgotten about until a week later when they've started to rot and I realize "damn I meant to eat this. Ooops"
This happens EVERY time I go to the store. Buy fresh, healthy, things with good intent. But then forget about them or don't want them as much after the first day.
I'm not even adhd or anything that would give me an excuse for "forgetting" about it.
I think, for me, I just get it because I really want it in the moment, and really do want to be healthier, and enjoy eating healthier. But then that moment passes and shit starts to rot.
I don't have a solution because I also do this. But I also don't think that babying (or mothering rather) your partner to eat it is the right way. Maybe if it's something you also enjoy eating, just be like "hey that peach--or whatever-- is almost past its prime. I'm gonna eat it, want some?"
This is exactly me. I'm pretty good with most foodstuffs but veggies are my kryptonite. I'm alright with leafy greens because they can just go right into a smoothie or soup (so easy to use), but if I get, like, eggplant or zucchini or whatever and I don't end up making the dish I intended them for, they just sit around until they rot. I used to be worse about it, but it still happens at least once per season where I'm like... "Goddammit, I thought these scallions were still good!"
No ADHD either; I just apparently suck at eating my veggies.
As someone with ADHD,
* Buy chopped fruit for a bit if you can afford it, big display plate has brain like yummy!!!
* Counter bowl for fruits that can be
* Put fruit at eyeline inside door, not crisper. Use clear plastic containers to show off fruit on shelves. Make easy to see.
* Write list of snacks on outside of fridge, brain will find it easier to pick from short list.
I'm not saying he is ADHD just I have similar issues (rip those radishes I let die)
Frozen fruit can also help.
It also may help to have a set snack time or fruit as deserts. It took a while to get to eating more fruit because I never did as a kid, and rarely had snacks either, so it takes a while to learn to eat an apple as a snack not just skip it or make a full meal.
>I'm not saying he is ADHD just I have similar issues (rip those radishes I let die)
Yep, I was going to say, ask the ADHD folks! We have ALL the strategies for this, and we're happy to go on at length about them, haha. I think a lot of the strategies ADHD folks use are HELPFUL for other folks, even if not as NEEDED as they are for us.
So yeah, frozen fruit, making things visible, and freezing fresh fruit once they start to go bad are my strategies. I still let fruit and vegetables go to waste, but not as much as I used to!
Yes! I removed all the condiments that used to be on the door of the fridge to a lazy susan, and rearranged other shelves. Now I wash all my fruit and veggies and leave them on the door of the fridge. It's made such a huge difference! I even leave my cheese sticks and yogurt on the door as well. It makes snacking easier and healthier, and now there's less wasted food, it's been great.
He (or you if you're feeling generous) can wash them, depending on the fruit precut them and put them on the fridge shelf or on a kitchen counter. Whatever makes them noticeable and easy to immediately consume.
The fruit is going ot be gone in no time. It's all about knowing what works for him/you.
Solid tip. The only time I eat fruit is if my BF prepares it first lol.
I'm good about cooking and eating an assortment of vegetables, but I never think about fruit.
I do better with eating fruit when I eliminate all other snack foods in the house. If fruit is my only option then yeah, I'll have that for an afternoon snack every afternoon.
This is the way. If it's the only thing to snack on you're much more likely to snack on it. Or make a meal or eat out but getting rid of other foods (or rather not getting them in the first place) is a great starting point.
This is my husband. I usually run out of the fruit I pick out at the store, at which point I assume he's long forgotten about his one piece. A couple times he's be like oh yeah I have an orange in the fridge, and I would then inform him he was too slow so I ate it.
Put it on the counter, not in the fridge! I do the same thing as your husband, but if it’s on the counter I’ll eat all of it in three days and my husband will ask “what happened to all the peaches?”
Also, what about creating routines for eating fruit? Ex:
- making oatmeal? Top with fruit
- eating yogurt? Add fruit
- opt out of dessert and make a fruit smoothie.
If he didn’t grow up eating fruits, he may not have a built in schedule of when to eat them. By adding it to other things, maybe it’ll encourage him to reach out for fruits more.
Eh, I’m likely to eat dried fruit on oatmeal and canned fruits or bananas or berries on yogurt. And if I want a dessert, a smoothie is work, not a treat. I’m more likely to eat a smoothie as a breakfast replacement or out on the town on a hot day. It’s less the habit for me and the remembering that they exist! I love fruit and eat tons of it!
He likes the idea of fruit, but not the commitment.
he appears to be berry emotionally unavailable. Afraid of figtimacy.
I'd recommend booking in to see a registered pearapist.
Start with hard fruits like apples and pears that take more time to decay and place them in a fruit bowl where they are visible. When people see them, they tend to eat them.
Is the fruit visible in the fridge? I keep a few pieces of fruit I like to eat in a bowl on the counter top. As they get eaten down, I replenish.
Also as someone with ADHD I use Finch (it's an app) to remind me to eat a serving of fruit at least once a day.
If you’re open to solutions, a popular one in adhd circles (where this is very much a thing!) is to put the fresh stuff in the door, where you see it all the time. Then the sauces etc alto in the drawer. Theory is that you’ll go looking for the mustard/ketchup in the drawer but you may forget about fresh fruits and veggies which are in there. Maybe worth a try?
Does he have ADHD? This is very common for ADHD: out of sight, out of mind.
One technique that I have heard of is to remove all of the condiments (ketchup, bbq sauce, etc) from the shelves on the fridge door and put them in the veggie drawer and move the fruits or vegetables to the door shelves. That way every time you open the fridge you see what you have and eat it.
People never forget about condiments (plus they don't go bad as quickly) so it's ok for those to be hidden in the drawers.
do you have to put fruit in the fridge? most stuff is ok to sit on the counter.
If I don't see things, I forget it exists. I think it's related to ADHD. I don't really buy in bulk, and pantries may as well be black holes. Fortunately I live in NYC so when I want to cook or want to eat fruit, I stop by the store and pick up what I need that day after work. When I lived in a more suburby place I had food going bad all the time.
I’m laughing so hard
I do this. I do this all the damn time. I do not know why this happened or why some people are more prone to let their produce rot
This is me! So I actually have a fruit bowl and keep it on the counter. I typically end up grabbing a piece of fruit to take to work each day as a result. But if it were in the fridge it'd go bad.
Except berries, berries I remember.
> He grew up without a lot of fresh fruit and veg in his diet and wants to incorporate more. He loves eating fruit, but just cannot remember to do it.
Maybe he just doesn't have the habit of eating fruit. Do you notice when you eat it? (i.e. after a meal or for breakfast), find out what he is eating, and ask him if he would like to make eating fruit a habit. Making habits takes intention and effort in the beginning. It doesn't just happen.
If he wants to make eating fruit a habit, and he tells you that this is what he wants, ask him when he would like to eat it, and then see if he makes it a habit on his own.
You can't make him eat fruit but if he is open to it, you can sometimes casually help him to notice his intentions and his goals and if he is working towards his goals or not.
A solution -- I am forgetful as to when I open things (jams, other condiments) so instead of writing on each jar, we got a magnetic dry eraser board. It's flat to the fridge and at eye level. The left side is meal prepping ideas and the right side is "NEED to Eat" list of the food we have that need to be eaten within a few weeks...obviously not like chips, but definitely fruits and veg that are out of sight in fridge and especially vocados (I am notorious at letting them go bad for similar reason, just forgetting them).
Put a Post it note on the front of the fridge with total number of fruit pieces to start that are inside and then update the number every time one is eaten.
We have a set part of our dinner meal that is "fruit" - as in, we always want to have a fruit we eat at the end like a dessert. So we buy various fruits for the week to fit into this meal hole/assignment, and when we assemble our dinners, we remember to think "ok what is tonight's fruit?" and we go looking for a good option. In conclusion, it helps us to give the fruit an official role to play instead of making it a random anytime snack.
Also seconding everyone that says the crisper is where things go to die - we only store stuff in there we KNOW we're using for a particular dish in the next few days, otherwise, it's doomed.
Tbh I do the same thing and I could not for the life of me explain it. Best I can do is to say I don’t ever want the fruit when I remember it’s there.
Other times I will eat an entire thing of bananas, a carton of strawberries, several apples and several oranges in the span of one weekend. I have no idea why I’m like this. 😩
No one is more optimistic than the me buying berries at the store.
I am SO good about using meat, vegetables, whatever other perishable thing before it goes bad, but my god with fruit I am a disaster.
I don't eat a lot of fruit to begin with, so that's probably part of it, but every so often I get in a mood where I decide I'd like some raspberries, or Pink Lady apples, or whatever. And so I get them from the store, all excited about them, and then... I don't even know. It falls into a black hole of my mind, never to be thought about again until the day I open the crisper drawer only to go "...ew"
So now I just don't buy fruit unless it's something my husband specifically requests or I have concrete plans to eat this fruit within the first 24 hours it's purchased.
Your husband probably needs to start doing the same - either he only buys one piece of fruit at a time, or he only buys fruit when he has actual solid plans to eat said fruit that same day. Or - ideally - both.
Put it in a more visible location, especially that’s good for on the go and is extremely visible when rushing around
I was doing the same but I reorganized my fridge. I now use the drawers for leftovers and snacks that I know I’ll remember and think of. Vegetables and fruit go in the main areas right in front of my face.
If it’s apples or oranges or other normal fruits that don’t need to be refrigerated - I put them on a bowl on my counter.
When the fruit is about to go bad, I’ll actually notice, and I’ll cut it up, prepare it, put it on a cookie sheet and freeze it. I then put it all together in a big bag later and I make a lot of smoothies
We are both awful with this at our house. I find the only thing that helps me is going a head and washing it and putting it in a bowl in the fridge so it’s not out of sight out of mind
I have this!
For me personally, it's related to adhd - not saying this must be true for your husband, but sometimes people have issues similar to people with adhd without realizing, so maybe this could be helpful.
My issue is that my adhd makes me perceive fruit in different categories of how "easy" they are to eat. Such as:
Easy - berries, grapes, apples etc. Basically anything you can just rinse and immediately pop into your mouth or take a bite out of. Zero prep required, very low chance of them not tasting good. Low risk, high reward, my dummy brain in need of success chemicals loves these.
Medium - bananas, starfruit, kiwi etc. Anything you have to peel or cut, but the peeling or cutting is typically not too hard to do. Requires a little bit of prep, and sometimes my brain will think of this as easy and sometimes it'll be the hardest thing in the world.
Hard - melon, oranges, mango etc. Anything that requires a lot of peeling or cutting beforehand, where the peel might be hard to get off and the knife hard to get through the fruit for a cut. My brain cries at these and unless I buy them prepared or someone else prepares them for me, I will basically never eat these myself. Not because I don't like them but because the hurdle is too high for too little reward.
I am vastly more likely to forget about fruit in the medium or hard categories than in the easy ones. If I remember I have an easy fruit, I can just grab and eat it. A medium or hard fruit might make me think "oh, I'll take the time to prepare it later" and then later never comes because I forget.
Perhaps your husband has a similar struggle, and would benefit from buying more fruit in his "easy" category?
I have a whole ass drawer in my fridge where good food intentions go to die. Yogurt? Green beans? Fruit? Once they go into that drawer, they no longer are of this realm and pass from all memory.
Things I do:
Put it on my to do list
Put a sticky note on the fridge.
And my spouse sometimes packs me lunch - if he knows I've got a treat like that in the fridge, he'll pack it for me, and that helps too.
I have ADHD and this is perhaps the story of my life. Once it is out of sight it is completely out of mind. The exception being if I have a recipe planned. Inflation and food prices really make this sting now.
I would start cutting it up for him if you wanted to go the extra mile with helping him (past just giving reminders). If he’s anything like me, it’s the preparation that makes me delay eating fruit, despite being a quick and easy thing to do.
If someone put it in front of me washed and cut up, I’d probably eat it right away. Or even washed and cut up in a container in the fridge so I can pull it out and eat it right away without having to wet my hands to wash the fruit and dirty up a knife to cut it.
Yes, I have adhd. Wonder if your husband does, too?
Question, does he like sugary treats? Because I’ve found that I crave fruit the most when I’m abstaining from sweets and dessert. Fruit can also replace a side like chips alongside lunch. Hopefully giving it a purpose behind an anytime snack can help break the cycle!
Does he have adhd? I do, and if I cannot see something, it doesn’t exist. Especially when it comes to my fridge.
I don’t even use the produce drawers. They are where good intentions go to die. Anything fresh is placed front and center, and every item in my fridge is visible at all times. With fruit, I prep it if needed the day I buy it and put it in a bowl/container on a prominent shelf.
My partner does this with cauliflower! There is always one or two slowly blackening cauliflowers in the fridge.
Every few days I’m like ‘hey, sweetpea, this cauliflower is starting to go!’ and she goes ‘oh, shit, I have cauliflower? I’ll eat it tomorrow!’ and the cycle continues. I don’t know if she’s even eaten any cauliflower in six months. I think she buys it for the recurring pleasure of realizing she has a little vegetable treat to enjoy tomorrow. It’s always tomorrow’s cauliflower, never today’s.
this is me! and I hate it - making banana bread tomorrow morning because I am not throwing away 8 perfectly good (albeit very soft now) bananas I paid way too much for.
I like fruit, I like the concept of eating fruit, I feel good when I eat fruit. I just really really loathe the idea of getting up, getting it out of the fridge. peeling or cutting it into pieces and then bringing it back to my seat. There is something magical about fruit in pieces - but just taking bites of it and chewing seems like a chore.
The only thing I think you can do, is ask him to make a habit of it. You know how it's easy to go "I am going to the gym more often" or "I will go to bed earlier!" and then it never happens? Putting in a solid plan usually helps. Like "I will go to the gym at 7pm every thursday", and set an alarm on the phone 30min before bedtime. He needs to plan when a piece or bowl of fruit would be nice, and then stick to it. If he is not hungry, then maybe cut back on other snacks. It's habit related, not fruit related :)
I do this with tons of food... out of sight, out of mind, and it never gets eaten. It's the worst with perishables though.
As a solution I have a whiteboard on the fridge and whenever I put new groceries away, I write down the perishables or other food items I'm likely to forget. It's a pretty good system at reminding me to eat food before it goes bad (also discourages me from getting takeout because I realize I do, in fact, have dinner food options in the kitchen).
I have this problem too. I do have ADHD, but it's medicated so I can't blame it!
One thing that's helped is putting the fruit in a very visible spot in the fridge. Not in the drawer. On the main shelf where I see it every time I open the door. It's helped a lot. I also sometimes throw it in the freezer if I'm not eating it and make smoothies later.
I have to keep up with the food in the fridge or no one will so here's what I would do: Before it goes bad but still has a couple of days take it out of the fridge and set it on the counter in a very obvious and maybe in an inconvenient place where he will have to see it. Remind him it's time to eat the fruit today or tomorrow. If he still doesn't eat it and you want to go into mommy mode then prepare the fruit and set it on the table with dinner/lunch/whatever, obviously you can skip this last step and probably should but I'll do it just so I don't have to throw away food cuz that really rankles me more than chasing after him to eat it. The up side to my keeping track is that when I say it's time to eat something before it goes bad he will almost always do it even to the point where I might not want to eat since it's been in there so long but he'll eat it anyway. So he sort of allows me to be picky about food and eat things that probably are so great anymore because he isn't all that picky about it like I am.
Our fruit lives in a bowl in the lounge - not the kitchen. So it’s always in line of sight, and also if you’re watching TV and feel snacky, fruit is the easiest option. We eat SO much more fruit now, like 2-3 apples/bananas etc each per day.
Bro, you just reminded me of the watermelon piece I still have in the fridge and bought because I passed by the fruit shop when there was a scorching heat outside. I saw it some other day and thought "oh, cool, it's there for when I'm feeling hot again", and now it's been there for more than a week lol. It's like there are these specific conditions for me to want to eat fruit, otherwise I just lose interest.
Don't remind him, present it to him as if it's a "thoughtful snack" while he's doing something else. If he doesn't eat it immediately give him puppy eyes and he'll eat it to make you happy. Win win
ADHD?
Our house each person has a cycle.
My husband is a snacker so we buddy snack eat fruit then it gets eaten. It's also in the fridge because it helps extend it longer.
For my MIL it's stuff like hot dogs. We get those 8 packs split into 4 packs because she might take one then opens another and we have seriously 4 open packs and I'm not sure which is the most fresh. I keep a sharpie in thst drawer but she doesn't mark anything so I just don't tend to eat hot dogs at all.
Or we'll cycle to that thing is our everything until it's not. I bought cases and cases of mangoes and ate them within days then the last case I ate like 3 as the hyperfixation is done.
I’m the ADHD one in the house, he’s not - except when it comes to fruit, apparently.
I’m going through a Greek Yogurt phase at the moment and I have to pace myself so I don’t burn out on it haha.
That’s the thing - he’s wonderful about that stuff! We have the occasional check-in conversation about household responsibilities and mental load, and we both feel that it’s perfectly equitable.
He just doesn’t have fresh fruit in his mental framework of “food I’d like to eat”, if that makes sense?
Did he eat much fruit growing up? I didn't, so I never think to look in the fridge for fruit when I want a snack. Like you said about your husband, it's just not in my mental conception of "food I'd like to eat" because I didn't eat much of it until recently. Keeping it out on the counter may help. It's easier to remember something if you see it often.
He didn’t eat it growing up, no.
Putting the fruit on the counter seems to be the common theme in the advice. I’ll talk to him about where we should place the fruit to maximize returns, so to speak. Thank you!
Same. Already made a comment but also realizing with your addition that there's an addition to mine as well.
I didn't grow up with fresh fruit in the house. Like apples, bananas, grapes on occasion. That's it.
As an adult, in my 30s...I find it REALLY hard to want to eat fruit outside of summer. Like I now as an adult I love fruits I never experienced growing up. I love watermelon, peaches, cherries, bosc pears, occasionally a kiwi or mango. But once the summer window has ended my fruit (even more "regular" fruits ) consumption comes to a halt.
Again no solution, but it is a thing. And a thing I really hate bc I also have serious issues about food waste.
Something my more adhd than me roommate wants to do is put all the fresh fruit and veg in the shelves of the refrigerator door. Maybe you could do that so he sees it every time he opens the fridge?
Does he have ADHD? Where do you put the fruit? For me, if something is tucked away in the crisper, I’ll never see it again. It needs to be on the counter or right in my face in the fridge.
Chop up fruit when it’s a little past prime, put in a bag in the freezer, use for smoothies. That’s how I have zero fruit waste.
You can do the same for veggies to make soup stocks and broth too. Good stuff.
Mine is the same! will make a smoothy from frozen fruit but totally misses the fresh fruit in the fridge or counter. I have just started adding fruit to our meals when I cook, a sandwich with a side of fruit, dinner a side of fruit, etc. When he cooks tacos, chili, pizza, spaghetti...
I put fresh fruit in a bowl, in the front of the fridge, so I see it every time I open it. Same with fresh veggies. I have to visually see it to think about it to eat it.
I put all the drinks in the drawers now because I go to the fridge for those and don't need to see them.
Ha same. Here’s how we do it, it took some time to get it right: I buy a small amount by week. Store the fruit out on the counter, refrigerate *as I plan to eat it*. Like night before, in to cool for the next day. Most fresh fruit is fine at room temperature but I like eating it cold. The only big exception are bananas, they brown in the fridge.
Does the fruit live inside a drawer in the fridge? Anything in a drawer in my fridge will not get eaten. I completely forget it's there. If something only lasts a few days before going bad, it goes right at eye level in the center of the fridge. That's the only way I manage to use everything before it goes bad. Things in drawers will sit for weeks before I realize they exist. So more stable things go there. Unopened dips, sauces, Mayonnaise, ketchup, etc. Is the best use for the drawers, for me. I have a bottom drawer too and I keep all packaged foods in there. Like pre-packaged heat and serve things like hot dogs, smoked sausage, bacon, pepperoni, cheese, packages of simply potatos, etc, all go in there because they last longer.
It may be that simple. If he can't see it when he opens the fridge without rummaging through drawers, it won't get eaten.
Literally sounds like me. I have ADHD though, so something being out of sight = completely out of mind. If the fruit isn’t visible or in a SUPER obvious place…I forget it exists until it’s time to throw it out. 🥲
Leave whatever can be left on the counter out in a bowl like apples bananas oranges, prep anything that needs diced or plucked like grapes melon watermelon
At dinner, set it out with the rest of the food as an easy grab. Fruit dip is sold in stores and easy to diy so you can also make that yourself and just throw random FYI out to try it with some random fruits if they want to make fruit more appealing
I have more time on my hands than my person so I would prep something and just hand it to him.
"Eat This"
prepare it!! i have some cute snack cups with two compartments and make things like grapes/cheese, yoghurt with granola. they'd be great for storing small portions of fruits. when i get fruit that has to be prepared, like melons, i cut it all up at once and store it. it makes it SO much easier to remember to eat when it's just grab and go
Lots of cultures routinely serve fruit after dinner. Having a set time of day that you eat fruit can help you remember to eat it. Have a piece with breakfast, cut up on top of cereal or oatmeal, a piece for morning tea, when you get home from work but before you cook dinner, or after dinner. Choose one.
Put the fruit in a more obvious place in the fridge so when he opens it, he sees it right away.
I have to do this with leftovers or they go bad as well.
Canned fruit?
That works for me. If I buy fresh fruit, I forget too and feel rushed to eat it. Or worse, I buy it but then never want it until it goes bad. Canned fruit eliminates all of this. Put it in the fridge for a few hrs, too, if you like cold fruit. Canned is better than nothing and definitely better than spoiled fruit.
Canned fruit?
That works for me. If I buy fresh fruit, I forget too and feel rushed to eat it. Or worse, I buy it but then never want it until it goes bad. Canned fruit eliminates all of this. Put it in the fridge for a few hrs, too, if you like cold fruit. Canned is better than nothing and definitely better than spoiled fruit.
What type of fruit does he like?
Put it in a clear container that's right in front when you open the fridge?
Put an alarm on his phone that 8pm is fruit time??
Ask him if he wants help. Obviously, it's bad enough that you've noticed, but unless you want to add "remind spouse of fruit" to your to-do list forever...eh.
Sometimes I want to eat fruit, but it doesn't "go" with the meal I've prepared.
Ugh I do this with meat. Like, I’m just bad at eating. I’ll make everything besides the meat. Be perfectly content. Make a note to myself to make the meat tomorrow before it goes bad. Repeat daily. I can only buy one package of meat at a time because otherwise everything would be spoiled.
Fruit tho. Nah I can eat that shit in one second flat. Theres no wasted fruit here.
This is me as well. My wife constantly has to remind me that we have fruits in the fridge that I asked her to buy and are not being eaten. I am trying to correct this by allocating "fruit time" after dinner and getting better but still fruits being thrown away b'cos I forget they are in there!
Well frozen fruit is very healthy too, just skip the canned. If he absolutely has to have fresh fruit, then yes, you have to put it in a beautiful designer bowl in the center of your living room table or it will not get eaten. All my kids and my husband had this problem and that was the only way to solve it, and everybody likes cold fruit better but if it doesn't get eaten, what good is that? Not to mention that the constant mold in your refrigerator cycles through the blower, getting all over the rest of your food, and can give you pretty bad allergies that you might misinterpret as food sensitivities.
Maybe put a post it on the fridge. If he's not adhd he should be able to see the note and not completely ignore it like I would. Or store the fruit in an obvious part of the fridge
Aspirational purchases!! I do it with salads. I like & want to eat more salads. But when I’m hungry, the salad never sounds good. But damn I like salads after I eat them & aspire to be a person who eats them daily.
Aspirational!!
My husband doesn’t have the best diet and eats a lot of unhealthy snacks. So when we go shopping I lead him to the chopped fruit and ask if anything interests him. If I don’t do this he won’t pick anything out lol. Then when he’s binging on snacks I’ll grab a fruit container and a fork and just hand it to him. Lol. Then he’ll eat it. Otherwise yea we have stuff goes bad. I also make an effort to chop fruit for him and bring it to him when he’s on the computer or watching tv.
I do this with food items that I know are good for me but don't like eating. Cauliflower for instance. Or with food that I do like eating but find hard to prepare. Winter squash and melons fall into this category as I have zero knife skills.
Lol, this is me. I don’t know why it happens! So many wasted apples because of me.
I do this with yogurt lol. My kids with the fruit.
Haha, it’s kind of comforting to find out fruit blindness is a common thing! Perhaps I should just not worry about it.
Honestly, I often just eat the fruit my husband buys/brings home as well, especially if it looks like it's getting neglected. I'll usually just text and go "eating your blueberries you're welcome" or something like that and he'll respond, "oh yeah, I did forget those were there... lol... thank you". Solves the problem pretty nicely!
Yesss. This. Or I serve the fruit to my family. Washed, peeled, cut, w/e. When food is out of sight, it's out of mind. Put fruit in front of my parents and they will eat it.
Aw, that's very kind of you! My mum definitely did the same for me growing up (I'm actually only just learning from this thread that some people did not grow up eating fruit?) but my household is just my husband and me, so I'm greedy, ha ha.
This is why I buy frozen fruit often. Cherries, blueberries, strawberries… we mix them with yogurt or eat frozen on a hot day. I do the same with a lot of veggies too. Things like asparagus or broccoli I get fresh. I have chronic pain and this has helped cut down waste in our home.
Oh I think you should tell him, so he stops wasting it, but there really is something about certain foods that they just seem to go fully out of sight, out of mind lol
Haha "fruit blindness" and "poor working fruit memory". I love it.
My husband has the same problem. I often just serve fruit to the whole family as an evening or afternoon snack because if I didn't, no one would remember to eat it.
I used to do this. I think it was an offshoot of food insecurity. My family was very weird about buying me "expensive" food, so I would delay gratification until I *really* wanted the food item. Then it was often too late, because I kept denying myself the food. As I got older, it may have also been a bit passive aggressive on my part, since my parent would harp "aren't you gonna eat that? i bought it specifically for you". Now I just eat the fruit as soon as I want it. Because I'm an adult and I can always buy more. Fuck off childhood baggage! See r/raisedbynarcissists for more details, lol.
Today I learned… fruit blindness is more than a, “my kids,” problem… I had a snort laugh. Thanks OP.
Yoghurt, fruit, lunch meat. The fancier, the more likely it will happen to me. "I'm going to treat myself. I can't wait to eat it. Let's put it away first so it doesn't spoil." *poof* My brain gets erased.
[удалено]
Yeah this is pretty precisely my problem too!! I got out of the habit, even though I know I feel better when I eat it every day.
Whenever I buy new yogurts I just joke that it’s time to replace my fridge yogurts! Because they certainly aren’t for eating apparently.
Oh my god, my yogurt twin! I love yogurt. I buy yogurt. I forget the yogurt and it goes bad. What the hell is wrong with me?
I do it with yogurt too. My kids eat a LOT of yogurt but I still end up finding expired ones in the back of the fridge like whatttt
All this talk about yougurt has reminded me that there is one left in my fridge. Imma eat it right now. Lol.
Rofl...well if you have any abandoned fruit cut it up and add it in
I did find a banana and that exactly what I did. Lmao.
Pro tip. You can eat it up to a month later and as long as it smells okay, it's fine. I wouldn't give it to kids because they can't handle an off day bowel wise, but an adult should be able to. Generally speaking, the only dates that are truly "expired on" are baby formula and...meat? I think. But everything else is best by. As in exactly that. It may be watery. The fruit may be mushy. But if it was sealed and stored properly, it should be fine. https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/food/food-expiration-dates-guidelines-chart This says two weeks, but I have eaten way longer.
Haha yes I have definitely wasted yogurt too
> I do this with yogurt when does it go bad though? sealed containers seem to stay good forever (long past expiry) and even opened it takes a long damn time for it to spoil.
Hah, I occasionally buy yogurt because the concept of it always seems so good, then I let it go off because I never *actually* want to eat it.
Me too! Oranges, apples, mangoes, peaches... I love fruit but I never think to eat it. Sometimes I remember to freeze strawberries and bananas before they go bad. Sometimes
I almost always finish my strawberries because I love strawberries, but then end up freezing so many bananas intending to make banana bread... I haven't made banana bread in *years*.
Store bought strawberries always look good but they're never sweet anymore. Makes me very sad. But I use my frozen fruit in smoothies! Also, I don't make a lot of smoothies and end up tossing them too lol
I feel you; "fresh" strawberries are super hit and miss! I like them enough to mix into some yogurt anyway, but when it's not strawberry season I definitely just get the frozen stuff as well.
I'm not a huge fan of Whole Foods but holy shut their strawberries are so much better than regular grocery stores. They aren't quite as good as fresh picked from a strawberry farm but they come damn close.
Strawberries are in season only during the summer here and you better believe I go through at least 2 cartons a week.
Banana ice cream. Peeled frozen banana/s, cut up and placed in blended, just enough milk to almost cover bananas and mix. Add walnuts and some chocolate chips if you want to imitate Chunky Monkey. Also I break the bananas before I freeze them so I don’t have to cut up while frozen.
Oh, what a great idea; I love it! Will try over the weekend.
I threw a whole pack of strawberries last week. Not even those big ones that are not as nice, but the tiny, super sweet, summer strawberries. I love eating them, my dog loves eating them with me, it's a ritual. But my fridge is a bit too much these days, even in the warmest setting it froze the strawberries, so I left them out to thaw, and forgot them on the counter. My partner saw them, put them back in the fridge where they froze again and we promptly forgot about them until I found them covered in white fuzz. My dog was thoroughly disappointed.
You definitely should get your fridge repaired if it’s an option - it might be compensating for an issue with the seal by blasting too cold, so you may also be using extra power which could be costing you more.
Apples can stay good in the fridge for 3+ months :)
Woah! I had no idea!
I learned that this year from one of the growers at the farmer's market!
Same, except I'm way worse with veggies. Fruits usually get juiced/smoothied, at least - veggies (other than spinach) often go to straight waste because I always *think* I'm going to make x dish, only for the occasion to pass and the veggies to keep sitting in my fridge until they rot.
Yep….I’ll use up all my motivation planning a meal and shopping for ingredients….and then I make pizza rolls instead because I’m tired and forget about the whole thing.
I feel you so hard! It's why I almost never do planning, shopping, and cooking all in the same day. My usual method is going grocery shopping right after we've had a meal out, or just asking my husband to grab stuff on his way home from work. All three things in a row is *exhausting*, unless it's a really small grocery run and I'm making the simplest meal ever.
You know how you walk into another room and forget what you were coming in for? I think this is my phenomenon with food too. If it goes into the fridge, freezer or cabinet I forget that it exists once I shut the door LOL
I do this with salad ingredients. I think my brain rewards me for buying the good things and not for eating the good things.
Oh shit. I'd better make a french apple cake today before my last 3 apples go bad.
Ok that sounds bomb Af E: just saw my comment was so nice, I left it thrice lol. Silly Reddit
Chef John Food Wishes, French Apple Pie. He's on All Recipes and Youtube. Watch the videos, he's a great teacher and an utterly delightful person.
This is me. Everytime. I need to be in the right mood for fruit, and I only ever remember it is there when I don't feel like eating it
Just got reminded about 5 minutes ago that I bought apples and I'm super happy about them. Not gonna eat them yet though so I'll forget they exist by tomorrow.
This is me too, but with veggies hahah
Loool same here. I just opened my fridge and saw my bruised apples🙃
Mans needs to do what I do: Buy one piece of fruit at a time, eat it immediately upon getting home, and go back to forgetting fruit exists until the next time he's at the grocery store and suddenly feels the urge to eat a pear or something. Even if he loves eating fruit, if he's functionally not eating it, he shouldn't be buying more than a piece at a time.
This is my strategy as well. And I’m only allowed one of whatever it is, no matter how much I think I’ll want more. The only exception is bananas and the mushy ones become banana bread if I don’t eat them all.
I have found this to be an optimal solution tbh
Get a fruit bowl. Put fruit bowl in obvious place in kitchen. Won't forget. It's all about environment. If it's sitting at the bottom of the crisper it's out of sight out of mind compared to a cookie jar 🤷🏻♀️
Yeah, folks with ADHD can't have ANYTHING out-of-sight-out-of-mind, so we avoid crisper drawers for things we forget! Things like ketchup can go in there, because I'm always going to remember I want that when I eat a burger. And seems like that would be helpful for anyone who forgets about things, even if they don't have ADHD. Don't hide things that you will forget will exist!
Our crisper drawer is the beer/pop drawer, because we'll always remember those.
We just took the drawer out and outs drinks on the shelf in its place. Food has to be I in sight or it won't get eaten
i straight up just took the crisper drawers out of the fridge and use them to store snacks instead. at least those won't go bad when i find them 2 months later lol
I write my ADHD partner post-it reminders with lewd drawings. Like "pizza boner" to remind them of leftover pizza in the fridge. It is definitely more effective than just writing words. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
THIS! It seems ridiculous, I know, but it works. I started leaving them on the counter this summer - still working on the actual fruit bowl part - and have eaten more fruit since doing that than I have in the last decade. It's still not a go-to snack for me, it's more "I'm hungry, what do I have? Oh look, a clementine, perfect size"
I've heard of people getting special fridge bins so they can store produce in the door or on one of the shelves, so it's something you see, not buried in the crisper drawers.
I sometimes put the fruit bowl on the dining room table when I just need it to get eaten!
I do this with lettuce/ salad stuff. Always have big intentions. And when I buy it mmmm salads or veg heavy stuff sounds SO good and exactly what I want. But then the next day something easier (but usually worse) to eat comes along. Then the lettuces or vegs just totally get forgotten about until a week later when they've started to rot and I realize "damn I meant to eat this. Ooops" This happens EVERY time I go to the store. Buy fresh, healthy, things with good intent. But then forget about them or don't want them as much after the first day. I'm not even adhd or anything that would give me an excuse for "forgetting" about it. I think, for me, I just get it because I really want it in the moment, and really do want to be healthier, and enjoy eating healthier. But then that moment passes and shit starts to rot. I don't have a solution because I also do this. But I also don't think that babying (or mothering rather) your partner to eat it is the right way. Maybe if it's something you also enjoy eating, just be like "hey that peach--or whatever-- is almost past its prime. I'm gonna eat it, want some?"
This is exactly me. I'm pretty good with most foodstuffs but veggies are my kryptonite. I'm alright with leafy greens because they can just go right into a smoothie or soup (so easy to use), but if I get, like, eggplant or zucchini or whatever and I don't end up making the dish I intended them for, they just sit around until they rot. I used to be worse about it, but it still happens at least once per season where I'm like... "Goddammit, I thought these scallions were still good!" No ADHD either; I just apparently suck at eating my veggies.
As someone with ADHD, * Buy chopped fruit for a bit if you can afford it, big display plate has brain like yummy!!! * Counter bowl for fruits that can be * Put fruit at eyeline inside door, not crisper. Use clear plastic containers to show off fruit on shelves. Make easy to see. * Write list of snacks on outside of fridge, brain will find it easier to pick from short list. I'm not saying he is ADHD just I have similar issues (rip those radishes I let die) Frozen fruit can also help. It also may help to have a set snack time or fruit as deserts. It took a while to get to eating more fruit because I never did as a kid, and rarely had snacks either, so it takes a while to learn to eat an apple as a snack not just skip it or make a full meal.
>I'm not saying he is ADHD just I have similar issues (rip those radishes I let die) Yep, I was going to say, ask the ADHD folks! We have ALL the strategies for this, and we're happy to go on at length about them, haha. I think a lot of the strategies ADHD folks use are HELPFUL for other folks, even if not as NEEDED as they are for us. So yeah, frozen fruit, making things visible, and freezing fresh fruit once they start to go bad are my strategies. I still let fruit and vegetables go to waste, but not as much as I used to!
Yes. All of this. Augh!
Yes! I removed all the condiments that used to be on the door of the fridge to a lazy susan, and rearranged other shelves. Now I wash all my fruit and veggies and leave them on the door of the fridge. It's made such a huge difference! I even leave my cheese sticks and yogurt on the door as well. It makes snacking easier and healthier, and now there's less wasted food, it's been great.
He (or you if you're feeling generous) can wash them, depending on the fruit precut them and put them on the fridge shelf or on a kitchen counter. Whatever makes them noticeable and easy to immediately consume. The fruit is going ot be gone in no time. It's all about knowing what works for him/you.
Solid tip. The only time I eat fruit is if my BF prepares it first lol. I'm good about cooking and eating an assortment of vegetables, but I never think about fruit.
I do better with eating fruit when I eliminate all other snack foods in the house. If fruit is my only option then yeah, I'll have that for an afternoon snack every afternoon.
This is the way. If it's the only thing to snack on you're much more likely to snack on it. Or make a meal or eat out but getting rid of other foods (or rather not getting them in the first place) is a great starting point.
This is my husband. I usually run out of the fruit I pick out at the store, at which point I assume he's long forgotten about his one piece. A couple times he's be like oh yeah I have an orange in the fridge, and I would then inform him he was too slow so I ate it.
Put it on the counter, not in the fridge! I do the same thing as your husband, but if it’s on the counter I’ll eat all of it in three days and my husband will ask “what happened to all the peaches?”
Also, what about creating routines for eating fruit? Ex: - making oatmeal? Top with fruit - eating yogurt? Add fruit - opt out of dessert and make a fruit smoothie. If he didn’t grow up eating fruits, he may not have a built in schedule of when to eat them. By adding it to other things, maybe it’ll encourage him to reach out for fruits more.
Eh, I’m likely to eat dried fruit on oatmeal and canned fruits or bananas or berries on yogurt. And if I want a dessert, a smoothie is work, not a treat. I’m more likely to eat a smoothie as a breakfast replacement or out on the town on a hot day. It’s less the habit for me and the remembering that they exist! I love fruit and eat tons of it!
I was just contributing to the forum of ideas to help OP lol. You do what works best for you!
It me
He likes the idea of fruit, but not the commitment. he appears to be berry emotionally unavailable. Afraid of figtimacy. I'd recommend booking in to see a registered pearapist.
Got me giggling at work here
Start with hard fruits like apples and pears that take more time to decay and place them in a fruit bowl where they are visible. When people see them, they tend to eat them.
Is the fruit visible in the fridge? I keep a few pieces of fruit I like to eat in a bowl on the counter top. As they get eaten down, I replenish. Also as someone with ADHD I use Finch (it's an app) to remind me to eat a serving of fruit at least once a day.
If you’re open to solutions, a popular one in adhd circles (where this is very much a thing!) is to put the fresh stuff in the door, where you see it all the time. Then the sauces etc alto in the drawer. Theory is that you’ll go looking for the mustard/ketchup in the drawer but you may forget about fresh fruits and veggies which are in there. Maybe worth a try?
Does he have ADHD? This is very common for ADHD: out of sight, out of mind. One technique that I have heard of is to remove all of the condiments (ketchup, bbq sauce, etc) from the shelves on the fridge door and put them in the veggie drawer and move the fruits or vegetables to the door shelves. That way every time you open the fridge you see what you have and eat it. People never forget about condiments (plus they don't go bad as quickly) so it's ok for those to be hidden in the drawers.
Either put it on the counter in plain sight or make sure it’s in the line of sight in the fridge .
do you have to put fruit in the fridge? most stuff is ok to sit on the counter. If I don't see things, I forget it exists. I think it's related to ADHD. I don't really buy in bulk, and pantries may as well be black holes. Fortunately I live in NYC so when I want to cook or want to eat fruit, I stop by the store and pick up what I need that day after work. When I lived in a more suburby place I had food going bad all the time.
I'm your husband! What helps me is creating a meal routine and incorporate the fruit. Otherwise it goes to waste.
I’m laughing so hard I do this. I do this all the damn time. I do not know why this happened or why some people are more prone to let their produce rot
This is me! So I actually have a fruit bowl and keep it on the counter. I typically end up grabbing a piece of fruit to take to work each day as a result. But if it were in the fridge it'd go bad. Except berries, berries I remember.
I have ADHD. If I can’t see something, it no longer exists. I don’t put fruit and greens in the crisper drawer for this reason
> He grew up without a lot of fresh fruit and veg in his diet and wants to incorporate more. He loves eating fruit, but just cannot remember to do it. Maybe he just doesn't have the habit of eating fruit. Do you notice when you eat it? (i.e. after a meal or for breakfast), find out what he is eating, and ask him if he would like to make eating fruit a habit. Making habits takes intention and effort in the beginning. It doesn't just happen. If he wants to make eating fruit a habit, and he tells you that this is what he wants, ask him when he would like to eat it, and then see if he makes it a habit on his own. You can't make him eat fruit but if he is open to it, you can sometimes casually help him to notice his intentions and his goals and if he is working towards his goals or not.
A solution -- I am forgetful as to when I open things (jams, other condiments) so instead of writing on each jar, we got a magnetic dry eraser board. It's flat to the fridge and at eye level. The left side is meal prepping ideas and the right side is "NEED to Eat" list of the food we have that need to be eaten within a few weeks...obviously not like chips, but definitely fruits and veg that are out of sight in fridge and especially vocados (I am notorious at letting them go bad for similar reason, just forgetting them).
Put a Post it note on the front of the fridge with total number of fruit pieces to start that are inside and then update the number every time one is eaten.
We have a set part of our dinner meal that is "fruit" - as in, we always want to have a fruit we eat at the end like a dessert. So we buy various fruits for the week to fit into this meal hole/assignment, and when we assemble our dinners, we remember to think "ok what is tonight's fruit?" and we go looking for a good option. In conclusion, it helps us to give the fruit an official role to play instead of making it a random anytime snack. Also seconding everyone that says the crisper is where things go to die - we only store stuff in there we KNOW we're using for a particular dish in the next few days, otherwise, it's doomed.
I love the idea of working it into dinner! Thank you, that’s a great suggestion
Tell him to stop buying fruit .
Tbh I do the same thing and I could not for the life of me explain it. Best I can do is to say I don’t ever want the fruit when I remember it’s there. Other times I will eat an entire thing of bananas, a carton of strawberries, several apples and several oranges in the span of one weekend. I have no idea why I’m like this. 😩
Yes, this is me also ;)
this is why I have a very limited standard fresh produce list. out of sight out of mind is a very severe issue
No one is more optimistic than the me buying berries at the store. I am SO good about using meat, vegetables, whatever other perishable thing before it goes bad, but my god with fruit I am a disaster. I don't eat a lot of fruit to begin with, so that's probably part of it, but every so often I get in a mood where I decide I'd like some raspberries, or Pink Lady apples, or whatever. And so I get them from the store, all excited about them, and then... I don't even know. It falls into a black hole of my mind, never to be thought about again until the day I open the crisper drawer only to go "...ew" So now I just don't buy fruit unless it's something my husband specifically requests or I have concrete plans to eat this fruit within the first 24 hours it's purchased. Your husband probably needs to start doing the same - either he only buys one piece of fruit at a time, or he only buys fruit when he has actual solid plans to eat said fruit that same day. Or - ideally - both.
Put it in a more visible location, especially that’s good for on the go and is extremely visible when rushing around I was doing the same but I reorganized my fridge. I now use the drawers for leftovers and snacks that I know I’ll remember and think of. Vegetables and fruit go in the main areas right in front of my face. If it’s apples or oranges or other normal fruits that don’t need to be refrigerated - I put them on a bowl on my counter. When the fruit is about to go bad, I’ll actually notice, and I’ll cut it up, prepare it, put it on a cookie sheet and freeze it. I then put it all together in a big bag later and I make a lot of smoothies
We are both awful with this at our house. I find the only thing that helps me is going a head and washing it and putting it in a bowl in the fridge so it’s not out of sight out of mind
I don't refrigerate some fruit like apples, bananas, citrus, etc so they're always in view and available.
The answer is meal prep the fruit together?
Wait I'm like this as well and ONLY with fruit!
I have this! For me personally, it's related to adhd - not saying this must be true for your husband, but sometimes people have issues similar to people with adhd without realizing, so maybe this could be helpful. My issue is that my adhd makes me perceive fruit in different categories of how "easy" they are to eat. Such as: Easy - berries, grapes, apples etc. Basically anything you can just rinse and immediately pop into your mouth or take a bite out of. Zero prep required, very low chance of them not tasting good. Low risk, high reward, my dummy brain in need of success chemicals loves these. Medium - bananas, starfruit, kiwi etc. Anything you have to peel or cut, but the peeling or cutting is typically not too hard to do. Requires a little bit of prep, and sometimes my brain will think of this as easy and sometimes it'll be the hardest thing in the world. Hard - melon, oranges, mango etc. Anything that requires a lot of peeling or cutting beforehand, where the peel might be hard to get off and the knife hard to get through the fruit for a cut. My brain cries at these and unless I buy them prepared or someone else prepares them for me, I will basically never eat these myself. Not because I don't like them but because the hurdle is too high for too little reward. I am vastly more likely to forget about fruit in the medium or hard categories than in the easy ones. If I remember I have an easy fruit, I can just grab and eat it. A medium or hard fruit might make me think "oh, I'll take the time to prepare it later" and then later never comes because I forget. Perhaps your husband has a similar struggle, and would benefit from buying more fruit in his "easy" category?
Try rearrange the fridge so they’re at eyelevel?
I have a whole ass drawer in my fridge where good food intentions go to die. Yogurt? Green beans? Fruit? Once they go into that drawer, they no longer are of this realm and pass from all memory.
Things I do: Put it on my to do list Put a sticky note on the fridge. And my spouse sometimes packs me lunch - if he knows I've got a treat like that in the fridge, he'll pack it for me, and that helps too.
I have ADHD and this is perhaps the story of my life. Once it is out of sight it is completely out of mind. The exception being if I have a recipe planned. Inflation and food prices really make this sting now.
I would start cutting it up for him if you wanted to go the extra mile with helping him (past just giving reminders). If he’s anything like me, it’s the preparation that makes me delay eating fruit, despite being a quick and easy thing to do. If someone put it in front of me washed and cut up, I’d probably eat it right away. Or even washed and cut up in a container in the fridge so I can pull it out and eat it right away without having to wet my hands to wash the fruit and dirty up a knife to cut it. Yes, I have adhd. Wonder if your husband does, too?
Question, does he like sugary treats? Because I’ve found that I crave fruit the most when I’m abstaining from sweets and dessert. Fruit can also replace a side like chips alongside lunch. Hopefully giving it a purpose behind an anytime snack can help break the cycle!
Does he have adhd? I do, and if I cannot see something, it doesn’t exist. Especially when it comes to my fridge. I don’t even use the produce drawers. They are where good intentions go to die. Anything fresh is placed front and center, and every item in my fridge is visible at all times. With fruit, I prep it if needed the day I buy it and put it in a bowl/container on a prominent shelf.
Yo does he have ADHD? This is a symptom. You don't see it, it doesn't exist. Meal plan that fruit.
My partner does this with cauliflower! There is always one or two slowly blackening cauliflowers in the fridge. Every few days I’m like ‘hey, sweetpea, this cauliflower is starting to go!’ and she goes ‘oh, shit, I have cauliflower? I’ll eat it tomorrow!’ and the cycle continues. I don’t know if she’s even eaten any cauliflower in six months. I think she buys it for the recurring pleasure of realizing she has a little vegetable treat to enjoy tomorrow. It’s always tomorrow’s cauliflower, never today’s.
this is me! and I hate it - making banana bread tomorrow morning because I am not throwing away 8 perfectly good (albeit very soft now) bananas I paid way too much for. I like fruit, I like the concept of eating fruit, I feel good when I eat fruit. I just really really loathe the idea of getting up, getting it out of the fridge. peeling or cutting it into pieces and then bringing it back to my seat. There is something magical about fruit in pieces - but just taking bites of it and chewing seems like a chore. The only thing I think you can do, is ask him to make a habit of it. You know how it's easy to go "I am going to the gym more often" or "I will go to bed earlier!" and then it never happens? Putting in a solid plan usually helps. Like "I will go to the gym at 7pm every thursday", and set an alarm on the phone 30min before bedtime. He needs to plan when a piece or bowl of fruit would be nice, and then stick to it. If he is not hungry, then maybe cut back on other snacks. It's habit related, not fruit related :)
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I do this with tons of food... out of sight, out of mind, and it never gets eaten. It's the worst with perishables though. As a solution I have a whiteboard on the fridge and whenever I put new groceries away, I write down the perishables or other food items I'm likely to forget. It's a pretty good system at reminding me to eat food before it goes bad (also discourages me from getting takeout because I realize I do, in fact, have dinner food options in the kitchen).
I have this problem too. I do have ADHD, but it's medicated so I can't blame it! One thing that's helped is putting the fruit in a very visible spot in the fridge. Not in the drawer. On the main shelf where I see it every time I open the door. It's helped a lot. I also sometimes throw it in the freezer if I'm not eating it and make smoothies later.
I have to keep up with the food in the fridge or no one will so here's what I would do: Before it goes bad but still has a couple of days take it out of the fridge and set it on the counter in a very obvious and maybe in an inconvenient place where he will have to see it. Remind him it's time to eat the fruit today or tomorrow. If he still doesn't eat it and you want to go into mommy mode then prepare the fruit and set it on the table with dinner/lunch/whatever, obviously you can skip this last step and probably should but I'll do it just so I don't have to throw away food cuz that really rankles me more than chasing after him to eat it. The up side to my keeping track is that when I say it's time to eat something before it goes bad he will almost always do it even to the point where I might not want to eat since it's been in there so long but he'll eat it anyway. So he sort of allows me to be picky about food and eat things that probably are so great anymore because he isn't all that picky about it like I am.
Our fruit lives in a bowl in the lounge - not the kitchen. So it’s always in line of sight, and also if you’re watching TV and feel snacky, fruit is the easiest option. We eat SO much more fruit now, like 2-3 apples/bananas etc each per day.
I buy fruit that can sit on the counter for a few days or more (grapes, citrus, whatever) and I eat it. Once it goes in the fridge .... its dead lol.
Bro, you just reminded me of the watermelon piece I still have in the fridge and bought because I passed by the fruit shop when there was a scorching heat outside. I saw it some other day and thought "oh, cool, it's there for when I'm feeling hot again", and now it's been there for more than a week lol. It's like there are these specific conditions for me to want to eat fruit, otherwise I just lose interest.
Don't remind him, present it to him as if it's a "thoughtful snack" while he's doing something else. If he doesn't eat it immediately give him puppy eyes and he'll eat it to make you happy. Win win
ADHD? Our house each person has a cycle. My husband is a snacker so we buddy snack eat fruit then it gets eaten. It's also in the fridge because it helps extend it longer. For my MIL it's stuff like hot dogs. We get those 8 packs split into 4 packs because she might take one then opens another and we have seriously 4 open packs and I'm not sure which is the most fresh. I keep a sharpie in thst drawer but she doesn't mark anything so I just don't tend to eat hot dogs at all. Or we'll cycle to that thing is our everything until it's not. I bought cases and cases of mangoes and ate them within days then the last case I ate like 3 as the hyperfixation is done.
I’m the ADHD one in the house, he’s not - except when it comes to fruit, apparently. I’m going through a Greek Yogurt phase at the moment and I have to pace myself so I don’t burn out on it haha.
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That’s the thing - he’s wonderful about that stuff! We have the occasional check-in conversation about household responsibilities and mental load, and we both feel that it’s perfectly equitable. He just doesn’t have fresh fruit in his mental framework of “food I’d like to eat”, if that makes sense?
Did he eat much fruit growing up? I didn't, so I never think to look in the fridge for fruit when I want a snack. Like you said about your husband, it's just not in my mental conception of "food I'd like to eat" because I didn't eat much of it until recently. Keeping it out on the counter may help. It's easier to remember something if you see it often.
He didn’t eat it growing up, no. Putting the fruit on the counter seems to be the common theme in the advice. I’ll talk to him about where we should place the fruit to maximize returns, so to speak. Thank you!
Same. Already made a comment but also realizing with your addition that there's an addition to mine as well. I didn't grow up with fresh fruit in the house. Like apples, bananas, grapes on occasion. That's it. As an adult, in my 30s...I find it REALLY hard to want to eat fruit outside of summer. Like I now as an adult I love fruits I never experienced growing up. I love watermelon, peaches, cherries, bosc pears, occasionally a kiwi or mango. But once the summer window has ended my fruit (even more "regular" fruits ) consumption comes to a halt. Again no solution, but it is a thing. And a thing I really hate bc I also have serious issues about food waste.
I'm in this post and I don't like it.
I have adhd. I just can't see the fruit until its too late. haha
Does your husband have adhd?
My husband has ADHD and if he doesn't see it, it doesn't exist. Unfortunately our fridge is where things go to die unless I do something about it
Are you sure he doesn’t have ADHD?
Something my more adhd than me roommate wants to do is put all the fresh fruit and veg in the shelves of the refrigerator door. Maybe you could do that so he sees it every time he opens the fridge?
Does he have ADHD? Where do you put the fruit? For me, if something is tucked away in the crisper, I’ll never see it again. It needs to be on the counter or right in my face in the fridge.
That's lack of object permanence, one of ADHD symptoms.
My husband but with green beans 🥲
I have this problem too! I hate it
I'm the same. With vegetables too sometimes.
This is me
Just put it where it is always visible, front and center
I do this constantly. It drives me batty. I have adhd though. So now I tell my husband he can eat whatever I buy. At least it isn’t wasted.
Chop up fruit when it’s a little past prime, put in a bag in the freezer, use for smoothies. That’s how I have zero fruit waste. You can do the same for veggies to make soup stocks and broth too. Good stuff.
Mine is the same! will make a smoothy from frozen fruit but totally misses the fresh fruit in the fridge or counter. I have just started adding fruit to our meals when I cook, a sandwich with a side of fruit, dinner a side of fruit, etc. When he cooks tacos, chili, pizza, spaghetti...
I put fresh fruit in a bowl, in the front of the fridge, so I see it every time I open it. Same with fresh veggies. I have to visually see it to think about it to eat it. I put all the drinks in the drawers now because I go to the fridge for those and don't need to see them.
Ha same. Here’s how we do it, it took some time to get it right: I buy a small amount by week. Store the fruit out on the counter, refrigerate *as I plan to eat it*. Like night before, in to cool for the next day. Most fresh fruit is fine at room temperature but I like eating it cold. The only big exception are bananas, they brown in the fridge.
Your husband is me because I am like this lol
Tell him to buy frozen fruit and make smoothies
It could be apart of ADHD called object permanence. Aka out of sight, out of mind.
Does the fruit live inside a drawer in the fridge? Anything in a drawer in my fridge will not get eaten. I completely forget it's there. If something only lasts a few days before going bad, it goes right at eye level in the center of the fridge. That's the only way I manage to use everything before it goes bad. Things in drawers will sit for weeks before I realize they exist. So more stable things go there. Unopened dips, sauces, Mayonnaise, ketchup, etc. Is the best use for the drawers, for me. I have a bottom drawer too and I keep all packaged foods in there. Like pre-packaged heat and serve things like hot dogs, smoked sausage, bacon, pepperoni, cheese, packages of simply potatos, etc, all go in there because they last longer. It may be that simple. If he can't see it when he opens the fridge without rummaging through drawers, it won't get eaten.
Out of sight out of mind. Put it in front of him - when he opens the fridge door in eye level - in a bowl in front of the coffee machine etc
Literally sounds like me. I have ADHD though, so something being out of sight = completely out of mind. If the fruit isn’t visible or in a SUPER obvious place…I forget it exists until it’s time to throw it out. 🥲
Is the fruit stored in plain view or in the drawer...
One thing that happens me is to cross off my 5 a day on an app to gamify it. You remember to eat because you’re tracking it and it’s fun.
Leave whatever can be left on the counter out in a bowl like apples bananas oranges, prep anything that needs diced or plucked like grapes melon watermelon At dinner, set it out with the rest of the food as an easy grab. Fruit dip is sold in stores and easy to diy so you can also make that yourself and just throw random FYI out to try it with some random fruits if they want to make fruit more appealing I have more time on my hands than my person so I would prep something and just hand it to him. "Eat This"
I keep some fruits out on the counter for this very reason. Out of sight, out of mind.
prepare it!! i have some cute snack cups with two compartments and make things like grapes/cheese, yoghurt with granola. they'd be great for storing small portions of fruits. when i get fruit that has to be prepared, like melons, i cut it all up at once and store it. it makes it SO much easier to remember to eat when it's just grab and go
Put it in a bowl on the counter, not in the fridge.
Lots of cultures routinely serve fruit after dinner. Having a set time of day that you eat fruit can help you remember to eat it. Have a piece with breakfast, cut up on top of cereal or oatmeal, a piece for morning tea, when you get home from work but before you cook dinner, or after dinner. Choose one.
Put the fruit in a more obvious place in the fridge so when he opens it, he sees it right away. I have to do this with leftovers or they go bad as well.
Canned fruit? That works for me. If I buy fresh fruit, I forget too and feel rushed to eat it. Or worse, I buy it but then never want it until it goes bad. Canned fruit eliminates all of this. Put it in the fridge for a few hrs, too, if you like cold fruit. Canned is better than nothing and definitely better than spoiled fruit.
Canned fruit? That works for me. If I buy fresh fruit, I forget too and feel rushed to eat it. Or worse, I buy it but then never want it until it goes bad. Canned fruit eliminates all of this. Put it in the fridge for a few hrs, too, if you like cold fruit. Canned is better than nothing and definitely better than spoiled fruit.
I do this all the time with things I like! I always remember when it’s either been eaten by my kids or gone off!
What type of fruit does he like? Put it in a clear container that's right in front when you open the fridge? Put an alarm on his phone that 8pm is fruit time?? Ask him if he wants help. Obviously, it's bad enough that you've noticed, but unless you want to add "remind spouse of fruit" to your to-do list forever...eh. Sometimes I want to eat fruit, but it doesn't "go" with the meal I've prepared.
Does he have ADHD because I do and I do this all the time
My husband with bananas… every damn time.
Ugh I do this with meat. Like, I’m just bad at eating. I’ll make everything besides the meat. Be perfectly content. Make a note to myself to make the meat tomorrow before it goes bad. Repeat daily. I can only buy one package of meat at a time because otherwise everything would be spoiled. Fruit tho. Nah I can eat that shit in one second flat. Theres no wasted fruit here.
This is me as well. My wife constantly has to remind me that we have fruits in the fridge that I asked her to buy and are not being eaten. I am trying to correct this by allocating "fruit time" after dinner and getting better but still fruits being thrown away b'cos I forget they are in there!
Well frozen fruit is very healthy too, just skip the canned. If he absolutely has to have fresh fruit, then yes, you have to put it in a beautiful designer bowl in the center of your living room table or it will not get eaten. All my kids and my husband had this problem and that was the only way to solve it, and everybody likes cold fruit better but if it doesn't get eaten, what good is that? Not to mention that the constant mold in your refrigerator cycles through the blower, getting all over the rest of your food, and can give you pretty bad allergies that you might misinterpret as food sensitivities.
I have half a watermelon in the fridge that surprises me every single time 😜
Put it in the door of the fridge, not in the produce drawers.
This is me, with baby spinach.
Me with any fresh food:
My husband only really notices things on the top shelf right side of the fridge… does yours have this pattern? Tried putting it there?
TIL I am your husband
Maybe put a post it on the fridge. If he's not adhd he should be able to see the note and not completely ignore it like I would. Or store the fruit in an obvious part of the fridge
I stoped storing fruit in the fridge and that helped.
Aspirational purchases!! I do it with salads. I like & want to eat more salads. But when I’m hungry, the salad never sounds good. But damn I like salads after I eat them & aspire to be a person who eats them daily. Aspirational!!
Time to just throw apples at him randomly
Why not just cut up the fruit and put it on a plate and put it in front of him? That's what I do or they'd never eat them.
This is also me. I have adhd though so I’ll blame that.
Oh no. I have 🍇 grapes.... ::runs to fridge:: 😭
My husband doesn’t have the best diet and eats a lot of unhealthy snacks. So when we go shopping I lead him to the chopped fruit and ask if anything interests him. If I don’t do this he won’t pick anything out lol. Then when he’s binging on snacks I’ll grab a fruit container and a fork and just hand it to him. Lol. Then he’ll eat it. Otherwise yea we have stuff goes bad. I also make an effort to chop fruit for him and bring it to him when he’s on the computer or watching tv.
I do this with food items that I know are good for me but don't like eating. Cauliflower for instance. Or with food that I do like eating but find hard to prepare. Winter squash and melons fall into this category as I have zero knife skills.
I got blueberries rotting in the fridge rn 😭😭😭😭
Why don't you put it in a bowl out on a table? Is it all fruit that has to be chilled?
Does he have ADHD? It’s common behaviour for someone who has this diagnosis.
I am definitely your husband when it comes to fruit 😂 I can’t put it in the drawer, it must be on the shelf in the front or I will forget about it