As the New York Times explains, the curiously controversial health care package passed by Congress will require big restaurant chains to put
calorie information on their menus and drive-through signs. The new federal law requires restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets
to disclose calorie counts on their food items and supply information on
how many calories a healthy person should eat in a day.
Good idea? Bad idea? Click on the Comments link below and tell us what you think.
Costly bad idea! Why? The buyers won’t bother to read, and, reading won’t care. Their decision has already been made without regard for the health implications that have been part of the public school education since I was in elementary school in 1931-1942. This is just another example of Government attempting to dictate because they can, not because any utility will be realized.
The answer is NO! It dosen’t matter how many calorie every thing you put in your mouth is.If you are over weight,then that’s a personal problem.Why is the goverment wasting our damn tax dollars, trying to tell who or what over weight people should eat.Use our tax dollars feeding the under feed childern in our country.
Good lord, get a life. If you aren’t interested in the food you put in your mouth why should everybody else be penalized.
Eat smart.
The majority of patrons at most fast food eateries and other restaurants are already aware that they will be consuming high calories foods full of fats, salt and sugars all designed to make the food appeal to the taste while destroying the arteries. Virtually no one will read or care as the other posters so accurately wrote.
What needs to be done is a regulation of the food processing industry so that instead of eating food that has been denatured, reshaped, processed beyond recognition and is now supposedly “new and improved” people would and should be encouraged to eat real, fresh and whole foods just as our bodies evolved to eat and use.
However, the lobbying groups for the food producers and processors is well organized and has the money to continue to buy the political clout to stop such a proposal and those supposed experts who say that all we need are the parts and not the whole will continue to push “nutritionism” rather than nutrition.
It seems amazing how all of the new, imporved and “healthy” food that is lite, lo-fat, extra fiber and with vitamins added has lead to a nation of obese, sick people and children.
Yes! I really like this!
Agree with all here that people who consume unhealthy food at restaurants do so because it tastes good, is inexpensive, and they could care less if they get fat or ill from it. After all if they reach their 50’s and go to the hospital we end up paying for them via higher insurence rates. People who abuse their bodies don’t have insurance. They just live for today, enjoy life to the fullest, and know the hospitals will see them for free. Lets hope the new health system will take the burden from us for paying for these selfish misguided people. We shall see.
It will cost restaurants money, and it’s an intrusion by the government on the private sector. We used to say, “Let the buyer beware.” That means it’s up to us to be informed and take responsibility for our actions. Beyond this, calories are important, but eating 200 calories in a candy bar is a lot worse for you than eating 200 calories of fresh fruits and vegetables. You’ll still be less healthy eating the junk food, no matter how few calories of it you consume.
Yes! It’s a wonderful idea. Knowledge is empowering, and a simple means of comparing calories will help fight the national obesity epidemic.
More knowledge about what we eat is a good idea. I read labels on food products so I can make good decisions on what I put in my body. I eat at restuarants every week so knowing calories in food dishes would help me select good food for me and find good restuarants that care about their customers. We are what we eat!
I think it is a good idea because most people have an inaccurate idea of the calorie content of most foods. The government has a legitimate interest in protecting the health of its citizens by giving them the information to make informed decisions. And obesity is a serious health problem.
Restaurant chains have been guilty of loading food with fat and salt because it tastes good. Without knowing what is in a food, its easy to assume its not so bad. All kinds of people go to food chains, and I think most of them do care about their health. This new law will give people accurate information about what they are ordering. Then if they don’t care how many calories it has in it, that’s their business. At least they have been warned.
I think it is a good idea to have this “point of mouth” advertising. The poor diet epidemic in this country is costing taxpayers plenty right now. Why is this different than tobacco? By the way, this part of the legislation was requested by the food industry due to the expanding miriad of local regulations.
Sure. Why not? It’s simple, it can’t be expensive, and I’d like to know. I didn’t always think that way. Back when they started requiring calorie counts and ingredient lists on food labels, I thought it was an intrusive waste. Now I use them constantly. I suspect that the fast-food executives are just a little afraid of the change, but it hardly seems likely that they’ll lose much, if any, business. In fairness, I’m open to reconsideration based on a straightforward projection of how labeling might reduce income or inflate prices even just a little, but the fact that nobody seems to have provided one in public also says something.
Well, I agree with the intrusion part as being bad and relentless, but this is a very important issue and hidden from most folks. Lots of publicity recently about chains and the various alternative calories with similar items and “eat this, not that” things in books and on TV spots. Some of the high calorie items are shocking. I say do it. I have appreciated the few chains that have done it voluntarily.
MORE government intrustion. Most restaurants already do this, so if this info is that important to the consumer, the consumer will go to the outlet which provides that information. As others have said, most know that much of what passes for fast food isn’t that healthy. Having said that I do like having the information available–but not mandated by a government run amok. At the current pace in a few years we will have a card we have to scan everytime we order food,and by evening we will be told what we can’t have for supper because of what we ate at breakfast and lunch.
YES, YES, YES Our overweight nation needs this information in an obvious place!
Our nation is nutritionally ignorant. The fact that we are the fattest nation (34% obesity) is proof that this ignorance is costing us all at 17% GDP for medical care, again the world record.