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/
Interesting. I was just on the South Island and saw little of that. The only country i've been in where I observed lots of large people was Scotland. And even then they didn't have as many as us and they lacked the truly giant class.
It seems to be somewhat State related.
I spent a week in California's Silicon Valley area recently and there were very few fatties.
States like Texas and Georgia seem to have their share of tonnage.. ;)
You want the government to buy your drugs for you? Guess what, you better be prepared to have them tell you what you can eat.
The information is there, most folks, even the most poorly educated know the basics. The issue is using the knowledge. It's sad when kids look at you funny when you offer them water as a beverage, refuse all vegetables, can't understand why they are being offered fruit for dessert.
Their parents have passed on their eating habits, knowing full well they are bad......so there they sit with a 12 year old Type II diabetic. And most STILL won't change 'their' eating. There right to eat what THEY want is being infringed on (by their child!)
Yes, it's YOUR right to eat whatever you want....BUT, with a sick kid, you need to modify at least your grocery shopping, if not the whole families eating habits!
And don't get me started on the end of the road, IatewhatIwantednowIminanursinghomeat60 folks. Biggest babies in the world. Look, eat what ya want, but bite the dang bullet when it hits ya. You get no sympathy from me.
I agree totally. You make your own choices, and are responsible for the consequences.
I do feel sorry for the kids who get the wrong training from their parents. But most kids have enough savvy by the age of 12 or so to figure out that they don't have to be fat. It takes more to get healthy if the parents aren't supportive, but all kids grow up eventually, and become responsible for their own lives.
My issue is more with the 'sick' kids....the new Type II's, the new hypertensives, the new cardiac issues we're seeing....plus morbid obesity, like GPB's at 15.
Yeah, a kid of 12 may know how to eat, but he doesn't buy the food, snacks, plan the meals etc. Technically, he's still at the mercy of his parents. That is what I was referring to sadly, the kids who's parents are not willing to make the radical changes to help their kids be healthy, heck survive!
They may know how to eat healthy, but many may not make it to make the changes.
Well, the only reason the gummint gets involved, it seems to me, is that obesity creates additional costs to it and to the rest of us. But that cannot be stated, it would be, why, 'RACIST", and would outrage the DU as well as the FR side of the political spectrum. In the name of political ocrectness we avoid all kinds of unpleasant truths, or in this case connections. It can be stated outside of any context that obesity affects disproportionately members of ethnic minorities and the so-called poor who patronize the junk food restaurants and purchase their food using foo stams. But for the same political correctness reasons we are not allowed to make connections and single out the foo stams and the Mcburger outlets in these revelations. So the gummint points to all restaurants. Absurd! I see plenty of obese 'poor' people (only in America!) with cell phones and iPods, needless to say, but I never ever see obese people in the restaurants I patronize, and they are not expensive, high class joints.
I agree that the kids are the big issue. We haven't done them any favors by eliminating recess and pe from most schools. Physical activity would help a lot of them.
Most kids do have a say in what they eat - unfortunately, most kids prefer fries to celery sticks. And their parents go along with that. School menus haven't been able to change that either.
What do you think the answer is?
Ya just can't beat a big ol' t-bone!
So yeah, I've seen them eat collard greens and cornbread. ;) We put out milk and fruit for snacks, and the junk is pretty limited. And I am REALLY trying to push water, but that isn't working all the time.
Part of it too, is we have no substitutes, unless its health or allergy related. So from the get go, they know if they don't like it, tough. (OK, so that's my theory....don't give them choices, or keep them small in the same category)
Maybe it's because they're away from their parents.
Anyhow, I have niece who at 18 months eats all veges and fruits (allowed for her age)....she drinks water constantly, no juice. Her crackers are whole grain, yadda yadda yadda.
But it's because her parents really, REALLY want her healthy.
Another thread on this topic stated that the FDA wants to do away with doggy bags as well.
Good Grief!
I think all kids really prefer fatty foods like chips and fries or candy. They'll pick those if they have a choice. It's their undeveloped taste buds that do it, I think.
Some years ago, I had occasion to take care of up to 4 kids for regular afternoons. They were 5-10. I'd put out bowls of crisp vegs in ice water - broccoli, celery and carrot sticks, cauliflower, raw beans, mushrooms, apple slices, etc. Along with ice water and sometimes lemonade. They were perfectly happy eating that stuff. They had choices. But if someone gave them candy, they'd pick that first. (I learned not to put the candy where they could get it - I was never up to taking on kids with a sugar rush :-))
Good for you for working with kids in a juvie psych unit. Those are kids who need special care, and people like you are important for doing it.
You can go and ask your Chinese neighbours next door. Pop up at the Pacific Mall in Markham and ask anyone passing by what they think of the shapes of "white people". You will hear the Chinese migrants use exactly the same words you describe your American neighbours back on yourself.
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