Restaurants, including fast food chains, generally have calorie information available for consumers. However, they’re not always posted where people notice them much.
NYC health officials are now insisting that calorie counts go right up there on the menu. One 1500 calorie hamburger, coming up! The officials are hoping that people will now have the information they need to make healthier choices.
One slice of this pizza is 580 calories, and 330 of those are from fat. Definitely not Jenny Craig compliant!
Do people need this information or are they already aware of what they’re eating? Brian Wansink, whose work we feature often on this blog, has demonstrated that most people do not do a very good job of identifying how many calories they’re eating. People eating a meal with 1327 calories underestimated the amount by 484 calories at McDonald’s and 681 at Subway. Wansink makes the interesting conclusion that Subway has a “health halo,” causing people to underestimate the calories they eat there. At McDonald’s, however, people know they’re eating “indulgently,” and they come a bit closer to guessing the right amount. However, given the fact that eating 100 calories more than you need each day adds up to 10 pounds of extra weight in a year, these mistakes could lead to a lot of extra you.
Here’s the part I don’t like. The New York Restaurant Association has sued the NYC Health Department in order to block the posting of calories on menus. They claim that the new requirement violates their members’ First Amendment Rights. Say what? I think Karen would call this a “PR nightmare.” It makes it sound like they don’t want people to know what they’re eating…..
If you don’t want to wait for NYC, here’s a nifty site where you can look up the calories and other nutritional info on your favorite fast food.
4 Comments
biopsych · February 2, 2008 at 3:36 pm
This would be wonderful. There is a restaurant in Santa Barbara called Silvergreens that prints off the nutritional information of your meal on the receipt. If consumers knew exactly how many calories they were consuming I feel that our nation in general would be in better health. This is because it is very easy for people to convince themselves that what they are eating has fewer calories than it really does.
aoneil · February 17, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I agree that restaurants should be required to post nutritional information on their menus; it might lead people to make healthier food choices. But, what about people who are given all the facts and still choose to harm their bodies? Americans need to take more responsibility for their health choices: our lack of education is just as much to blame as fast food companies. Recently, I gave a speech on the documentary, Super Size Me, by Morgan Freeman. Freeman ate nothing but McDonalds for 30 days to show the detrimental effects of fast food on the body. On the twenty first day of the diet he couldn’t breath and he had heart palpitations, and by 30 days he had gained 23.5 pounds. One man in the video, deemed the “big mac enthusiast,” ate 265 big macs in 1 month! Clearly eating had become a hobby for him rather than a basic necessity of life. But when is enough enough? Clearly this behavior asks for problems, and might just explain why Americans are the heaviest nation in the world, and becoming progressively more obese.
ccallag · March 14, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I think restaurants should post their nutritional info!! I think it would encourage people to eat lighter. As far as the law suit to stop the postings I think is ridiculous! I would really like to know what I am eating!
hvitullo · April 16, 2008 at 12:16 am
I think it is a great idea for nutritional information to be required at all places were food is served. Obesity is a very scary epidemic in this country and part of it is the fact that people just aren’t willing to admit or don’t know how bad something is for them. I doubt half of us could sit down and accurately identify how many calories are in a variety of meals. This is a huge problem! People eat way more than they think and way more than they need! At least if the calorie content and fat content was available, people would be aware of what they are eating. Awareness and admitting you need a change is the first step!
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