Shocking Calorie Revelations
If you are a New Yorker, and you frequent chain restaurants or coffee shops, you may have noticed that next to the cost of your food item is also the amount of calories. The posting of calories is a new law in NY that went into effect this spring and applies to any chain with 15 outlets nationwide. There are mixed feeling about this new law, but I feel with the
continuous rise in obesity and diabetes in both adults and children we
need to be informed so we can make wise decisions.
With these new posting many people were quite shocked at the calorie revelations of many of the food they consume. Here are some shockers I read about:
Starbucks "fat free" banana chocolate chip cake has 390 calories
Dunkin' Donuts corn muffin has 510 calories
And my favorite... Friday's Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad has 1,360 calories and was advertised as "healty" option when in fact the cheeseburger and fries has 1,290 calories
How do you feel about seeing the calorie count posted?
Would you want your state to require nutrition information to be posted?
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Posted by: Janine White | Aug 5, 2008 1:10:46 PM
I wish calorie counts were required in Arizona. I try to watch what I eat when I eat out. Last time I went out to eat I ordered a dish that was supposed to come with fresh vegetables, which ended up being several cups of deep fried carrot sticks - neither fresh nor vegetables, plural - served next to a humongous pile of garlic mashed potatoes. Ugh! A perfect example of making good foods go horribly wrong.
Posted by: Alisha | Aug 3, 2008 8:43:42 PM
I think this is a great idea for the entire U.S! I definitely agree that restaurants might not see as much buisness because of it though. Perhaps they'd be forced to market REAL healthy options to draw more people or old customers back.
Another thing that's just ridiculous besides calories is sodium. The daily limit is about 2,400 and one regular order of bread sticks from Papa Johns has around 6,000mg of sodium. That's about 3 times what a person is supposed to have! Yeah...things need to change.
Posted by: shawn | Aug 3, 2008 2:36:48 PM
I live in south louisiana, and I wish they had to do that out here. I will only eat places where I can look up the nutrition guides in advance, either online or if I have gotten it from somewhere before. That is why my husband sent me a link to nutritiondata.com. I like to know for sure how much fat, calories, and vitamins are in the foods we all eat.
Posted by: Alex Costa - minimizeme.tv | Aug 3, 2008 10:26:58 AM
I think it's good to inform your customers about the amount of calories that each plate has, but saying that this actions will have any impact on obesity is wrong.
Obesity is a habit problem and not a knowledge problem. Until people don't change their habits they will not lose weight.
Posted by: Mom of son with allergies | Aug 3, 2008 10:22:52 AM
You have a choice when you go out to eat - guess what a piece of cake has calories, lattes have alot of calories. I think a bigger issue with restaurants is they don't know what are in their products so how can they possibly know how many calories are in them. If you ask someone if something has peanuts in an item or if it is processed in a plant or on machinery with peanuts - most have no idea, or they say it does not have peanuts in it and then it is ingested and lo and behold next you have an allergic reaction - this can cause death - you have a choice in what you want to eat when you go out as far as calories - use your common sense, but allergies are life threatening - shouldn't a restaurant know their products in order to make an accurate "guess" on caloric value?
Posted by: Megan | Aug 3, 2008 9:14:03 AM
The only way for a diner to know the fat and calorie content is to have prepared the food himself or to be told. People, whether they are managing their weight or not, need to know how many calories they are consuming. The restaurants don't want to share that information because diners will know how unhealthy eating out these days is and they will have to change their recipes or see their patronage dwindle.
