UMM Scorpion Soup, now thats what I call fast food!!
Posted on 06/01/2006 4:44:14 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - In the fight against obesity, restaurants should shrink portions, provide more nutritional information and bundle such calorie-laden food as burgers and pizza with healthier side dishes, according to a federally commissioned report to be made public Friday.
The report, requested and funded by the Food and Drug Administration, lays out ways to help consumers manage their intake of calories from restaurants, cafeterias and ready-to-eat meals bought at grocery stores. It does not address school meals.
"As of this decade, Americans are eating away-from-home foods more frequently and consuming more calories from away-from-home establishments than ever before," the report says in making the case for increasing the availability of foods and drinks packed with fewer calories but more nutrients.
The 136-page report prepared by The Keystone Center, a nonprofit policy group, does not explicitly link dining out with the rising tide of obesity, but it does cite numerous studies that suggest there is a connection. It also notes that Americans now consume fully one-third of their daily intake of calories outside the home. And as of 2000, the average American gobbled up and slurped down 300 more calories a day than was the case 15 years earlier, according to Agriculture Department statistics cited in the report.
Today, 64 percent of Americans are overweight, including the 30 percent who are obese, according to the report. It pegs the annual medical cost of the problem at nearly $93 billion.
Consumer advocates increasingly have heaped some of the blame on restaurant chains such as McDonald's. A new children's book and soon-to-be-released movie, both associated with the 2001 book "Fast Food Nation," have kept the issue at the fore.
In response, McDonald's has added entree-sized salads and the option to swap the fries and soft drink in children's meals for apple slices and juice. But when Americans dined out in 2005, the top three menu choices remained hamburgers, french fries and pizza, according to The NPD Group, a market research firm.
Still, restaurants increasingly are offering varied portion sizes, foods made with whole grains, more diet drinks and entree salads to fit the dietary needs of their customers, said Sheila Cohn, director of nutrition policy for the National Restaurant Association. But those restaurants can't make people eat what they don't want to, said Cohn, who contributed to the forum that produced the report. Other participants included government officials, academics and consumer advocates.
"It's really difficult for a restaurant to gauge what a person should be eating. Can you imagine going into a restaurant and the waiter saying, 'Sir, your pants look a little tight today. I have to bring you the fresh fruit plate rather than the chocolate cake for desert'" Cohn said, adding: "It's not really the responsibility of restaurants to restrict the foods that they offer."
The report encourages restaurants to shift the emphasis of their marketing to lower-calorie choices and include more of those options on menus. In addition, restaurants could jigger portion sizes and the variety of foods available in mixed dishes to reduce the overall number of calories taken in by diners.
Bundling meals with more fruits and vegetables also could improve nutrition. And letting consumers know how many calories are contained in a meal also could guide the choices they make, according to the report. Just over half of the nation's 287 largest restaurant chains now make at least some nutrition information available, said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
"If companies don't tell them, people have no way of knowing how many calories they are being served at restaurants. And chances are, they are being served a lot more than they realize," said Wootan, adding that Congress should give the FDA the authority to require such disclosure.
But the report notes that the laboratory work needed to calculate the calorie content of a menu item can cost $100, or anywhere from $11,500 to $46,000 to analyze an entire menu. Cohn said that makes it unfeasible for restaurants, especially when menus can change daily.
An FDA spokesman declined to make agency officials available to discuss the report ahead of a news conference scheduled for Friday.
Representatives of four restaurant chains — including Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell — who contributed to the report did not return calls seeking comment.
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On the Net:
Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov/
LOL..I have never had an eat everything on your plate mindset..and I was a depression baby. I love leftovers of a good dinner out. I also like to slice leftover steak into thin slices and make a sandwich.
A bloated and morbidly obese US government is of more danger to the health and prosperity of US citizens than being overweight. Let us put the government on a starvation diet first. Smaller portions for all departments! No portions at all for departments not mentioned in the Constitution, like Education and Energy. Starve the National Endowment for the Arts and National Public Radio!
UMM Scorpion Soup, now thats what I call fast food!!
It did cross my mind to ping Grok and Tork, but I figured if'n there was food around you'd be a'finding it soon enough ;-)
Since the obesity epidemic affects mostly the so-called poor, who are as often as not purchasing their food using foo stams how about limiting the kinds of items that can be bought wif foo stams? Cain't do that, can we, the junk food industry lobbyists might get upset.
LOL! That's a culinary abomination.
Agreed, I happen to be in the States at the moment and am having a
difficult time finding menu items which are reasonably portioned.
I find I've been eating a combined lunch/supper in the middle of
the afternoon and then generally at Thai restaurants..
Who knew the U.S. had great Thai restaurant... ;)
"Most restaurant serving sizes in America are at least 1.5 to 2x the servings I see in canada or here in NZ. Quite a lot of food actually. "
100% true. And you see far fewer overweight peaple and almost none of the truly obese monsters we have lumbering down US streets when you go to a place like New Zealand.
Things aren't too good in New Zealand either. Over half of people in this country are overweight, and obesity is a major problem among Maori and Pacific Islanders (who combined together constitute about 16% of the population). The Europeans (white) tend to be slightly overweight.
rember everybody the nanny staters are going to stop with smoking
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
One of your recent favorite sons, Peter Jackson, seems to have lost a ton of weight. Good for him. Also, you guys need to eat big portions to keep those elite rugby players in top form.
Isn't this how smoking bans started? The government just can't stand to let people live their own lives...
Everything not prohibited is mandatory.
Yep. No sense in arguing about it, the point has been conceded (back in the early 1900's in fact). This is just the logical outcome.
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