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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – If you live in New York City, calorie posting on chain restaurant menus has become commonplace and expected. In the rest of the country this concept is expanding but not yet the norm. That may be changing in the not too distant future, as will other regulations about how restaurants do business. Both politicians and advocacy groups are actively looking at the restaurant industry.
Americans eat out a lot. Households with annual incomes as low as $15,000 spend one of every four dollars on food away from home. For those who make $70,000 a year, half of their food dollars are spent on meals outside the home.
The current obesity epidemic in the US has been blamed, in part, on too many high calorie, high fat, high sodium, restaurant meals and too little fresh produce.
The current recession has caused a downturn in dining out. Restuarants are closing and chains are cutting back on expansion. How this will effect our expanding national waistline is yet to be determined. If McDonald’s is any barometer, people are still flocking to the golden arches, the emblem of our super-sized habits. McDonald’s posted third-quarter profits in late 2008 and a 7% jump in global sales. Taste and convenience are still the driving forces behind food selection. McDonald’s has been producing good-quality, low-priced food for decades, insuring McDonald’s will survive even if the overall restaurant sector is in for hard times.
Both local and national laws mandating changes in how restaurants operate are making their way through legislatures. The govenors of Connecticut and Maine are considering signing state wide menu labeling laws. Philadelphia’s mayor signed into law a bill that goes further than New York City and California’s calorie posting, requiring chains to post calories, trans fat, saturated fat, sodium and carbohydrates beginning in January 2010, Massachusetts passed a calorie posting law but extended the requirement to include drive-thru menus. This measure goes into effect in November 2010. Oregon is revving up for state wide menu-labeling while Portland’s county ordinance to post calories went into effect in March of this year.
New York’s governor has proposed a statewide bill that would require calorie posting by chain restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores, and mobile vendors with 15 or more locations nationwide. Oklahoma, Indiana, Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, Minnesota, and South Carolina are also considering menu legislation. North Carolina, joining Virginia and Wisconsin, is about to adopt at statewide smoking ban. In most other places, the smoking ban was the beginning of more and stricter restaurant regulations.
Nationally two bills are being circulated. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) have reintroduced the MEAL (Menu Education and Labeling) Act. This bill would require chains with 20 or more locations nationwide to post calories on menu boards and food display tags with more complete nutrition information printed on menus. The MEAL Act is getting opposition from the restaurant industry.
Restaurants are in favor of the LEAN (Labeling Education and Nutrition) Act, which is more restaurant-friendly. LEAN reintroduced by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) would provide a uniform national nutrition standard for chain restaurants and would supersede state and local measures. Chains believe a national coherent system would make compliance easier than the current growing patchwork of local and state initiatives. LEAN would apply to national chains with 20 or more locations. It differs from MEAL in that it allows some flexibility for posting information, a move that makes life much easier for chains.
As part of President Obama’s hope for sweeping health care reform, Senator Edward Kennedy’s health care bill includes a requirement for restaurants with more than 20 chains to post calories on their menus and provide more comprehensive nutrition information on request. The federal bill includes key elements of both the LEAN and MEAL acts proposed earlier.
In addition to pending legislation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is about to be headed by Dr. Thomas Friedan, the New York City Health Commissioner who lead the city’s ban on smoking in public places, using trans fat in restaurants, and mandating calorie posting in chain restaurants. He’d recently set his sights on sodium levels. He’ll find an ally on Capitol Hill in Michael Jacobson, Executive Director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). Jacobson recently testified before the Senate Finance Committee about the high levels of sodium in restaurant menu choices.
Whether or not we change the way we eat as more nutrition information is posted is yet too be evaluated. And, as the recession settles in for a long stay, basic economics will also impact on our choices. As money gets tighter, a Dollar Menu, Senior Lunch or super-sized meal may start to look like a bargain, regardless of the calorie load.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of the nutrition counter series for Pocket Books with 12 current titles and sales in excess of 7 million books. The books are widely available at your local or on-line bookseller.
Current titles include:
The Complete Food Counter, 3rd ed., 2009
The Fat Counter, 7th ed., 2009
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter, 2008
The Cholesterol Counter, 7th Ed., 2008
The Diabetes Carbohydrate and Calorie Counter, 3rd Ed., 2007
The Calorie Counter, 4th Ed., 2007
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to The Nutrition Experts
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