Group Wants Government To Mandate Labels On Restaurant Menus

Cybercast News Service ^ | 02/27/07 | Nathan Burchfiel

[Froufrou]

An advocacy group that once lobbied for mandatory nutrition labels for groceries has set it sights on restaurant chains and is asking the federal government to require large chains to offer calorie, fat and sodium information on menus.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest on Monday criticized several food chains for promoting what the group calls "x-treme eating" with dishes that include more calories and fat than most people should eat in one day.

The government recommends that the average American consume around 2,000 calories per day, with less than 10 percent of the calories coming from saturated fat.

A "colossal burger" at Ruby Tuesday contains 1,940 calories and 141 grams of fat. One serving of an appetizer at Uno Chicago Grill called "pizza skins" contains 1,030 calories and 67 grams of fat; the pizza skins dish contains two servings, bringing the total to more than 2,000 calories and 134 grams of fat.

Nutritional information for many chain restaurants - including Ruby Tuesday and Uno - is available on the companies' websites, but CSPI wants the information right on the menus. The group says that after years of lobbying the restaurants to offer the information voluntarily, it is resorting to government force.

CSPI has already convinced lawmakers in 19 states and cities to introduce legislation that would require nutrition labels on menus in restaurants with more than 10 locations around the country. It would apply to restaurants from Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and the Palm to McDonald's and Starbucks.

New York City in December became the first city to pass the law. A federal version of the Menu Education and Labeling (MEAL) Act was introduced in both houses of the U.S. Congress last year but never came to either floor for a vote.

"The food police are not going to take this away from you," CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson said during a news conference in Washington, D.C., Monday.

"The restaurants have every right to make these foods, and you have every right to eat them, but I think at the very least, these restaurants should give consumers the information that would enable them to make decent eating choices," he added.

Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for CSPI, said diners often don't realize how many calories they are consuming during a meal at a restaurant. "Without nutrition information it's difficult to compare options and to make informed choices," she said.

"Studies link eating out with higher caloric intake and an increase in rates of obesity," she said. "It's very easy to eat a whole day's worth of calories at a single sitting at a restaurant."

J. Justin Wilson, a spokesman for the restaurant industry-funded Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), said "it doesn't take a warning label for someone to know that something covered with cheese and bacon is not a health option."

Wilson showed up at CSPI's news conference to hand out cookies from Potbelly Sandwich Works with tongue-in-cheek warning labels saying the cookie "contains lots of calories, plenty of fat, and tons of yumminess."

"Including calorie information on menus will not make Americans healthier," Wilson argued. "Give consumers some credit. They already know the difference between a banana and a banana split, or a milkshake and a diet soda."

Wilson said that "almost every menu out there has a healthy option" and that "sometimes people just want a hamburger."

He said including nutrition information on obviously unhealthy food will add "a heaping pile of guilt along with their dinner if they decide to treat themselves."

[Froufrou]

carbon credits = number of lifebreaths???

[Red Badger]

Why do you bother? You know in advance that restaurant food is laden with fats and carbs, whether from McD's, Wendy's or Ruth's Criss or Hard Rock. You don't eat out every night, and once in a while splurge is fine, for the most part. It's not what you eat, per se, but HOW MUCH you eat! Don't eat like a pig and you won't look like one. We are omnivores and as such can handle just about anything, in moderation. Not too much fatty cheese and not too many donuts and coffee cakes. Get enough exercise by the week and enjoy your weekends out!.........

[Old Professer]

What do you eat at Quiznos?

[Eric Blair 2084]

Big Brother, Nanny State, Grant Junky, Bogus Study, Junk Science, Social Engineering, Sheeple Control, Health Nazi Ping!!!

To be added to or deleted from this ping list, please send me a private message below.

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Preamble:

We the People Sheeple of the United States Nanny State, in Order to form a more perfect Union Socialist Utopia, establish Justice Socially engineer a country of non smoking, physically fit, tea totallers, insure domestic Tranquility Smoking bans in bars, limits on unhealthy food and social drinking, provide for the common defense Universal Healthcare, promote the general Welfare health of the population whether they like it or not, in order to save above mentioned Universal Healthcare entitlement program from bankruptcy, and secure the Blessings of Liberty Dependency to ourselves progressive liberals and our Posterity Hitler Youth who we brainwash through public school education, do ordain decree and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Nanny State of Liberals.

[Ukiapah Heep]

They'll get my meat from me when they pry it from my cold, dead hands!

[DustyMoment]

BUTT OUT!!!!


I HATE nannystaters!!!!

[Monkey Face]

The way I see it, if you want the information, you should be given access to it. Consistency is OK, if you were going to eat at the same restaurant all the time, and order the same thing, but even if I go to the same place twice (which I seldom do) I won't order the same thing.

Some days, I want steak and potatoes, all of it in butter. And other times, I want a steak and a salad. And even the steaks vary. How can you "require" nutritional information on food when so much of it is personal taste?

I don't eat margarine; I cook in lard; I eat butter and fatty red meat. I don't think I would appreciate going into a restaurant and ordering something like that and finding that they were going to serve me a lean steak cooked in soy oil and served with soy margarine...with the ingredients pasted to the bottom of the containers...

But that's just me. :o])

[Publius Valerius]

There are a lot of pretty decent options at these places, and, though I'm not on a diet, there are a lot of people that count calories and fat grams while they diet.

But anyway, like I said: if we mandate nutritional facts to be placed on prepackaged food items, I struggle to understand why prepared foods are different.

[Monkey Face]

I doubt that this country is headed any other way than socialized medicine. There is too much fraud in the governing agencies and not enough checks and balances.

This is the only country in the world where the doctors and medical agencies actually get rich off the ill.

That can't last too much longer without a blowout.

[Eric Blair 2084]

"The food police are not going to take this away from you," CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson said during a news conference in Washington, D.C., Monday.

"The restaurants have every right to make these foods, and you have every right to eat them, but I think at the very least, these restaurants should give consumers the information that would enable them to make decent eating choices," he added.

....................................


Please allow me to translate, I speak fluent Health Nazi:

"If normal people really knew what our true agenda was, they would never allow it in a free country. We learned about incrementalism from our idols in anti-tobacco. You need to start out slowly by saying things like "All we want are non-smoking sections on these airplanes." Get the sheeple conditioned to being controlled for their own good, one step at a time."

[Publius Valerius]

I generally have the mesquite chicken with bacon. Quizno's Australia lists nutritional information, but its US website remains nutrition fact free (other than two subs). I've found it unclear whether or not the Aussie subs are identical to their American counterparts.

[theDentist]

The letter I just sent the busybodies...

Dear Folks at the CSPI,

Why don't you just go away?

You're a bunch of ******* busybodies at best. If you want to eat pure organic foods, by all means do, but leave the rest of us alone. We've grown tired with your constant ******* studies whining about calories and red meat and french fries and ice cream worries.

Why don't you look at the rest of the world's food and send them letters whining about what they eat?

Just SHUT THE **** UP already. Be miserable if you want, but keep it to yourselves, *******.

theDentist

[Publius Valerius]

And even the steaks vary. How can you "require" nutritional information on food when so much of it is personal taste?

That's true, but if I go to the grocery store and buy a steak or a pound of hamburger, I can read the nutritional information right on the label of the steak or hamburger. If I go home and cook it on the grill, I know the nutritional value of the meal I just ate.

Why is it so hard for a restaurant to post that information on its website (I think it's over the top to put it on the menus, though I note that Applebee's puts the nutritional information of its "diet" foods on the menu without any trouble)?

[Red Badger]

Prepared foods are not consistent from one cook/chef to another. A little more sauce, a little less salt, a little more sugar, etc. A chart for every food item would be very expensive. The lab tests to prove that the amount of fat and carbs plus vitamins, minerals, sugars, salt and fiber are really in there is very expensive to do. And time consuming, also. If a chain wants to produce a new dish, then a lab test must be done months in advance to get the facts down before the restaurant can serve one meal. I can accept the cost on groceries, which we have to buy, but not on restaurant meals that we don't have to buy............

[Kakaze]

To all the "do gooders" out there.........

QUIT MAKING ME YOUR HOBBY!!...manage your own life.

I'm sure if done properly that will be enough to keep you busy.

[quantim]

why doesn't it require restaurants to disclose nutritional facts on prepared foods?

In my restaurant we have a separate dining room for those that want this gubmint regulation forced on us so we print different menus.

We charge an extra $25 per person, per visit to cover the extra labor costs! /s

[TheKidster]

I think the titles of these foods tell the tale well enough. Collasal anything is considered bigger than normal by anybody with a 3rd grade level intelligence.

Everybody knows McD's is not healthy food.

Anybody stupid enough not to realize this surely won't understand the "menu" and nutritional listings.

[Monkey Face]

I dunno...logic tells me that if I buy a certain type of steak of a certain size at the grocery store, the odds are pretty good that if I order that same size and type of steak at a restaurant, I should already know the nutritional information.

If you're really curious about it, you might ask what the steak was cooked in...

The last thing I want to do when I go out to eat is analyze the food. I can do that while I shop for groceries.

[TheKidster]

Umm yeah, I don't think they'll be interested in touching that.

EEEWWWW

[Old Professer]

It would be interesting to know but there are so many variables such as the chicken size, number of bacon slices and doneness (drained?), sauce type and amount, type of bread and garnishes.

Works well on an assembly line like bottling ketchup or putting peanut butter in jars, though.