60 minutes--restaurant calories

I caught the story and found it very personal for 2 reasons.

(1) The subway where the female reporter (can't think of her name right now) ordered a sub with the Subway rep - that's on the corner of 58th and 3rd Ave b/c I've been there a couple of times to get lunch.

(2) I've actually changed my lunch order on several occasions by reading those exact board signs at the subways in NYC.  Last time I went to subway b/c I was jonezing for a Tuna sub.  While standing in line I reading the amount of calories, I changed my mind for a more healthy chicken breast sub.

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As for the arguments on the episode, I agree that the Wendy's guy was full of malarky about "too much information."  What happened to the simple logic of math.  People can easily add numbers together and so they just need to list the calories for the actual elements and let people add them together themselves.  Heck, last time I check the cash register has this neat capability of adding numbers, print out a "calorie counter" with your receipt.

Plus, the truth is that if people realized they were about to eat 1500 calories for lunch, they wouldn't order as much - hence the fast food joints wouldn't make as much money. 

*random* I wonder how many calories a head actually has */random*

I would love it if caloric content was more available at the restaurants.  It doesn't need to be right on the menu, but someplace in the actual restaurant would be nice.  Yes, I can look things up online and I often do.  But, sometimes you go out to eat and you aren't expecting to so you don't get the chance to plan ahead.

Unfortunately, people are not well informed about the food they are eating.  Portion sizes are huge and food has tons of calories.  Maybe posting calorie content would change that and the demand for healthy food would go up.  I don't think restaurants should warn you that what you are about to eat is bad, but I do think that they should make it a little easier to eat healthy. 

Just as an aside that not many people think about, there are cities and states that, very soon, will start to require nutritional information for every single food service facility.  That not only means the McD's, Taco Bells and KFC's but it also means Mom and Pops Hot Dog stand on the corner AND Chez Pierre's Chic Restaurant in uptown. 

So, Mom and Pops Hot Dog stand on the corner will have to either 1) fork out the money to have their specific items tested (this is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination) and/or 2) beg and plead and hope that the supplier of their products have some of the information for raw ingredients.  Oh, and they will have to pay to have their menu board changed too.

And Chez Pierre's will have to redo that fancy menu of theirs to actually have the caloric information right below the elegant description of the Duck a l'orange.  Same font size, style, etc.

Just some "food for thought". 

[gutter slide]WEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee[/splash]

True dat, especially real homemade stuff on pommes frites.....or chipotle/lime flavoured on a fresh tomato sandwich.......

Just don't eat too many deepfried sausages filled with it. (will not post pic)

Even that bookstore-coffee-shop Rice Krispy Treat I ate last week?  I was with several people yet, perplexingly, no-one wanted a bite.  Even though it had m&m's on it!  Instead they shook their heads and compared it to my "old house in Texas" and "a small planet" as I happily consumed the entire thing.

Okay, so it wasn't "low-cal," but it was carbo-loading for my race... right? 

Okay, back to serious-me now:  I don't eat much restaurant food.    It's hard to find whole grains, everything is way too greasy, and food from home is usually much cheaper AND tastier, at least to me.  Now that I'm no longer broke, I eat out one or two meals a week.  That's it.

Leapdog:

I agree with your comments that there MUST be some level of personal responsibility here.  I find it funny people order a larger combo meal (Whopper and Large Fry) w/ a diet coke - yeah the diet coke will save the day. 

Enders_shadow:

Last time I checked, Chipolte does not make their food available online.  And probably for good reason b/c estimated numbers put a normal burrito well into the 4 digit calorie range.

Velocomp:

I second the idea on the calorie counter.

crowny2:

as for the mom and pop places, that was a HUGE complaint that was raised here in NYC about the calories issue.  my problem with that argument is that unless you do some extra funky w/ the food - you can add up the calories based on its components.  In fact, they did that on an episode of Top Chef where the food serving had to be below a certain calorie level.  The added up the portions of all the ingredients to make a total.  In fact, Men's Health magazine adds this info next to their recipes - they aren't going out and getting a professional caloric analysis done.

So this information is very much readily attainable by simply adding the calorie information of your base ingredients and dividing out by the number of portions you generate from a dish.  It may not be an exact number, but it is very much ballpark and that should be good enough. 

For instance, even if you ballparked that sub sandwich, chips and juice the guy had in the show - you could ballpark that around 1200-1500 calories - which is a FAR CRY from the 300 he guessed.

I would LOVE to see at least pamphlets with the nutrition info in the store.  I'm pretty good at estimating and some places still surprise me.  Panera comes to mind.  Wow.

And I also agree that people underestimating calories is a HUGE factor in America's obesity problem.  I think part of it is that when I make a burger at home it has X number of calories.  Somehow at a fast food place that burger with the same ingredients is twice as much.  I think it must come down to me using a leaner meat or something.  BUT if you've been estimating the calories based on what you make at home you could easily underestimate using those numbers at a fast food place.  Not justifying their actions, just speaking from experience.

See, this is a good example of why you don't need to post them in the actual store: if you care about calories, you can take the initative to look it up online. If you don't, you don't. That way franchise owners are not burdened with have to buy new signage, and those who care can care.

I'm all for havign nutritional values available, but I'm also all for "personal responsibility". My calorie requirements (or lack thereof) are my responsibilty; it's up to me to figure out how much I'm eating. It really should be enough to make these guides available online. 

True, but there is seasonal variation on certain nutritients.  Vitamins and minerals to be precise.  As well as massive variation on how on cook puts together a meal compared to another.  AND again, as a small purveyor, you are at the mercy of your suppliers giving you accurate numbers. 

Oh, and as long as I have been in the food industry (13+ years), the FDA (main nutritional regulator) I think only gives up to 10% variance on numbers.  And based on how I've seen mom and pop shops operate, they are not going to take the time to actually weigh out the individual ingredients to make certain it fits into their nutritional range.  They can't afford to.

I guess it will be interesting to see how the City and State regs are written.  Will there be a greater variance?  Or will they allow a range?  Will they allow nutritional data bases to be used, or will they require them to test their products?  Will it only be base nutritional information (fat, calories, carbs, etc) or will they eventually require vitamins and minerals (where the cost really starts to add up).

Long and short of it, I think it is government sticking their nose where it doesn't belong.  And the ultimate lack of personal responsibility of the consumer.  No wonder so many people are fat if they are also too lazy to do a little research on what they are eating. 

So when people continue to gain weight because they couldn't give two rat f@rts about what they are eating, will the government then step in, yet again, and implement mandatory portion control?