It should be required by federal law...

Strokingdiction

Wow this got political...

But I so agree with you!

I'm just really happy some restaurants have the "healthy options" and include the calories.

Funny how posting about wanting to pass more federal laws got political . . .

I know, right?

Riffraft1960

Yes it can be frustrating, but a FEDERAL law NO!!!!!!!!

MelissaPhippsFeagins

I must be an evil libertarian; I think that way too many things are already required by federal law. And I say that as someone with a life-threatening shellfish allergy and Celiac Disease. I ask LOTS of quiestions when I eat out and that's AFTER I do all of the online research I can. The only way to know for sure what is in your food is to grow it in your own back yard and prepare it yourself at home.:drinker:

Aaron_K123

One thing that annoys me is people who demand regulation without having the foggiest clue of how such regulation would be implemented.

So for those who want the government to mandate that accurate nutrition information be provided by all establishments that sell food how exactly do you picture that happening? What mechanism would that regulation take and how would it be effective?

Calliope610

I don't know about a federal mandate, but it certainly would be nice. You never know what they're doing with your "grilled" chicken. My biggest problem is that most of the restaurants we like to frequent are mom & pops because we like to support our local economy, so I have to do a lot of "guesstimating."

The Mom & Pop local eateries would be the ones most effected by the cost of implementation. Better eat up now while they are still in business.

MelissaPhippsFeagins

I don't know about a federal mandate, but it certainly would be nice. You never know what they're doing with your "grilled" chicken. My biggest problem is that most of the restaurants we like to frequent are mom & pops because we like to support our local economy, so I have to do a lot of "guesstimating."

That's funny, most mom and pops I go to will tell me exactly what's in, for example, the soup of the day because they made it this morning in their kitchen and know. I even go to one where she shows me her recipe book AND the nutrutional info from it. She also keeps GF bread in her freezer just for me. That's a place I go a lot. :-)

jrose1982

Yes. That's why I won't eat at restaurants that don't have nutritional info on their website. I've mostly stopped eating out. When I do, I either get a salad and estimate the quantities of everything on it, or go to a chain restaurant with good data on their websites. And I generally know what I'm going to order before I commit to going to any particular restaurant. It kinda takes the fun out of eating out, but no one said weight loss is supposed to be easy.

I do have a vague idea for a business that would help small restaurants build basic websites that contain nutrition estimates for everything on their menu. I think to entice restaurants to participate, it would have to be fairly inexpensive and easy to maintain. I haven't figured out how to make that work though.

rm33064

It's not really feasible in most real restaurants, not accurately anyways. Natural products vary by nature. Branded ingredients can change with every delivery and will vary in calorie content. Cooks eyeball the measurements, especially with things cooked to order on a busy line, but also with things prepped long before serving. It doesn't take much for the same dish made by the same cook to vary 100-500 calories from dish to dish, or from cook to cook. For example if I post nutritional info for a salad, but the cook over estimates the dressing by one ounce, and the cheese by an ounce or so, plus the guy that prepped the croutons used 1/2 cup more butter than the recipe called for and all the sudden your salad has an extra 300+ calories! Even though I inspect every plate before it leaves my kitchen I would never know it. When everything comes in the back door already processed like fast food places it's more feasible to do because their isn't much actual cooking going on, more like just heating things up.

missiontofitness

This is a little left field here but still has to do with laws and nutrition. So i was at urgent care about a month ago and something came on the TV in the waiting room saying that it has been proposed for nutritional labels to be changed. One of the first changes would be for the calories to be in bigger font, the narrator said something along the lines of many americans dont know what number they are looking for and are easily confused or something to that affect, the said a few more things but the only other piece of imformation that caught my attention is that they are thinking about changing the seving sizes to "standard american portions" so instead of half a cup of icecream the serving size and calories would reflect half the bucket, instead of one ounce of chips the whole bag. I literally sat there with my mouth agape.

Any one else hear of this?

Sorry that is off topic

I think they wanted to change it to reflect the whole meal instead of a serving size. Like...you show the calories for a whole pizza instead of a fourth of a pizza.

I've been wanting this for years. How many people do you know that eat 1 third of a candy bar? Or 1 slice of pizza? This is especially terrible on canned goods. I believe that all labels should list how much of each thing is in the entire container and do away with "serving size" and "servings per container" entirely. For those who either don't know, or those who do know but are just in a hurry, its very shady to put "15 calories per serving" and "contains 42 servings" on the same package of something that it is MOST COMMON to eat all of in one sitting.

Or you could just eat the suggested serving size and save the rest for later...
Or use multiplication to figure it out yourself.
Or just enjoy a meal out that you are comfortable eating, without worrying about every calories.

Personally, the last thing I want is the government wasting time regulating food like that. If you want to change your life, you need to do it yourself. You can't depend on the government (and small businesses) wasting time, money, and resources on something like this.

Just calculate it yourself, or learn to fit a splurge here and there into your macros.

OkamiLavande

They may take our food choices, they may make laws, but they will never take my freedom to eat whatever the hell I want when I go to a restaurant and guesstimate what I eat!



We don't need a law, personal responsibility and moderation is all you need.

RageEight

I do have a vague idea for a business that would help small restaurants build basic websites that contain nutrition estimates for everything on their menu. I think to entice restaurants to participate, it would have to be fairly inexpensive and easy to maintain. I haven't figured out how to make that work though.

If something like this were offered using the SaaS model, since smaller businesses most likely won't have their own infrastructure, it would still cost "something". Servers don't run on marshmallows and rainbows. Even if the service itself were cheap, there is also the man hours to input data, and keep the data current, since we won't have any pretty system integration. This also makes the assumption that the end product would be "super easy to use and totally intuitive!!!". From the perspective of the business, a 3rd party system is a big headache in just about any manner of implementation, SaaS or otherwise. Pretty much any business person is going to ask you "where is my value in that?".

cadaver0usb0nes

...To have printed "Nutrition Facts" for every menu item in every restaurant in the country. It should be required to have it available either in print, at the front of the restaurant, or online for anyone to read. Does anyone else get as frustrated as I do when they go out to eat?

I think they should because a lot of people have allergies to things or may have illnesses where they NEED to know what they are putting into their bodies, and if they can't find out that information they have limited choices of where they can go out, and may miss out on fun family dinners if they can't eat at that restaurant.

SusanUW83

People's republic of California had it for a short time but it got superseded by a federal law not requiring it. California law mandated it for restaurants with over a certain number of stores, as not to impact small business too much. I think Cheesecake Factory's impulse sales went down when they had to post 1000-1600 calories in front of each item in their display counter. Espcially the carrot cake over 1600 cals. Some restaurants in California still post, but most still have available upon request.

Aaron_K123

We could just cut to the chase here and make it federally mandated that everyone has a chip implanted in their skull that gives them a pain sensation anytime they eat over maintenance levels.

Yay government intervention in matters of personal responsibility.

CA_Underdog

I think Cheesecake Factory's impulse sales went down when they had to post 1000-1600 calories in front of each item in their display counter. Espcially the carrot cake over 1600 cals

Bingo! They also added a lighter fare menu.

So for those who want the government to mandate that accurate nutrition information be provided by all establishments that sell food how exactly do you picture that happening? What mechanism would that regulation take and how would it be effective?

You'd begin with the policies of states who've already done this successfully--

https://www.countyofsb.org/uploadedFiles/phd/EHS/Calif Menu Labeling Guidlelines.pdf

For example if I post nutritional info for a salad, but the cook over estimates the dressing by one ounce, and the cheese by an ounce or so..!

This issue exists even for grocery store labeling, where a 20% error is considered "reasonable". We can later agree on a reasonable level of variance for restaurant foods, but the first step is to get those labels on there, and go after cases of obvious misrepresentation or gross negligence.

The Mom & Pop local eateries would be the ones most effected

Laws have generally targeted chains. Start with high impact, low cost, and work outwards.

rrsuthy

Do I like when a restaurant has the nutritional information YES, do I think we need the government mandating yet another area of our lives NO! One meal isn't making a difference estimate what you had and move on, and if you are so worried about it don't go out to eat at that establishment.

Exactly! I admit to hating that I can't easily find nutrition information, even for some chain restaurants. However, I don't want a law that some gov't department would have to oversee (which costs money) and then fine companies who aren't compliant, etc.

missomgitsica

...To have printed "Nutrition Facts" for every menu item in every restaurant in the country. It should be required to have it available either in print, at the front of the restaurant, or online for anyone to read. Does anyone else get as frustrated as I do when they go out to eat?

Most places do have nutrition facts listed online. In the past year or so I've looked up anywhere I plan to go beforehand, and there have only been a handful of places that I couldn't find the nutrition info. listed for online. Those places were almost all little locally owned mom and pop type places so it didn't surprise me.

That being said, I think you're overreacting. Just my opinion, but I honestly think that if you go out and just think about the choices you make you'll be fine.

Aaron_K123

I think Cheesecake Factory's impulse sales went down when they had to post 1000-1600 calories in front of each item in their display counter. Espcially the carrot cake over 1600 cals

Bingo! They also added a lighter fare menu.

So for those who want the government to mandate that accurate nutrition information be provided by all establishments that sell food how exactly do you picture that happening? What mechanism would that regulation take and how would it be effective?

You'd begin with the policies of states who've already done this successfully--

https://www.countyofsb.org/uploadedFiles/phd/EHS/Calif Menu Labeling Guidlelines.pdf

For example if I post nutritional info for a salad, but the cook over estimates the dressing by one ounce, and the cheese by an ounce or so..!

This issue exists even for grocery store labeling, where a 20% error is considered "reasonable". We can agree on a reasonable level of variance for restaurant foods, but the first step is to get those labels on there, and go after cases of obvious misrepresentation or gross negligence.

The Mom & Pop local eateries would be the ones most effected

Laws have generally targeted chains. Start with high impact, low cost, and work outwards.

You seem to be assuming that in states where this was implemented that the nutritional information provided was accurate. My question is specifically what mechanism of oversight was there to ensure that the displayed information was accurate? Did government agents show up to every restaurant in town with a bomb calorimeter?

SunofaBeach14

I think Cheesecake Factory's impulse sales went down when they had to post 1000-1600 calories in front of each item in their display counter. Espcially the carrot cake over 1600 cals

Bingo! They also added a lighter fare menu.

So for those who want the government to mandate that accurate nutrition information be provided by all establishments that sell food how exactly do you picture that happening? What mechanism would that regulation take and how would it be effective?

You'd begin with the policies of states who've already done this successfully--

https://www.countyofsb.org/uploadedFiles/phd/EHS/Calif Menu Labeling Guidlelines.pdf

For example if I post nutritional info for a salad, but the cook over estimates the dressing by one ounce, and the cheese by an ounce or so..!

This issue exists even for grocery store labeling, where a 20% error is considered "reasonable". We can agree on a reasonable level of variance for restaurant foods, but the first step is to get those labels on there, and go after cases of obvious misrepresentation or gross negligence.

The Mom & Pop local eateries would be the ones most effected

Laws have generally targeted chains. Start with high impact, low cost, and work outwards.

What do you do if you graduated in the bottom half of your law school class?

Push for stupid laws that give you potential causes of action . . .

metacognition

No, although that would be really convenient for me.

It would probably cost businesses a fair amount of money to professionally test the amount of calories in their food. What are the penalties if their numbers are inaccurate ? Is some federal agency going to individually and randomly audit the restaurants nationwide? Does the calorie count apply to branch chains (already in effect, I think ) or to mom and pop dine-ins as well ? And what of the cost to reprint all signs and menus ? That increases the cost of the meal. Although we have it for groceries, so it's probably workable.

I'd rather just estimate my foods and get sauce on the side than see the money spent - or another federal agency.

Usually I use the good old fashioned methods to estimate calories. Palm of hand - about four ounces. Closed fist - about a cup. Tablespoon of cream sauce - about 80 calories. Ask it cooked without oil. And if in doubt - tack on 100 or 200 quick add scoops - so much of the flavor in chain meals is added fat and it certainly adds up.