June 2009 Weddings
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Discussion: Calorie Labeling in Restaurants
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/business/24menu.html?ref=nutrition
How do you feel about this? Informed? Or "Boo. I just want to enjoy my food and not think about calories"?
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
Re: Discussion: Calorie Labeling in Restaurants
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Definitely agree with the last half of your post, but you'd be surprised at how completely unaware most people are of what they eat. My H continually asks me about the nutritional value of a hamburger vs chicken nuggets. He believes ketchup to fall into the vegetable category. Of course, in order for the labeling to have any kind of effect, one must know how many cals they SHOULD be eating in an average day.
I feel like it's informative, and may prevent me from choosing one item over another, yet sometimes I just want to blissfully unaware.
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
I agree with this completely! lol Before I go to one of those places, I've already had the internal struggle over my unhealthy choices. When I get there, I just want to get my food and get out!
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I think its a good thing.
People who don't want to see it will ignore it anyways.
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In CA, any restaurant with a certain number of locations (I want to say it's more than 5...) has to provide nutritional information for everything on their menu. Most have started to put them in a seperate menu or on the back page, so if you do want to be "blissfully unaware" you can be.
And I agree with Mamie about not realizing JUST how many calories are in some foods. I mean, I'd never argue that a Big Mac & Supersized Fries are healthy/low-cal. But, going off the above example, I went to a restaurant and ordered a rice bowl with steamed veggies and teryaki sauce...it was almost 700 calories! I thought I was picking the "safe" item on the menu*
*Which, it turns out, I was. The salad I was considering had over 1,000 calories.
Exactly. It's the seemingly healthier options that are so sneaky. I had a fruit and yogurt parfait from a chain thinking yogurt, fruit, and granola - not too bad. Stupid thing had more calories than a Big Mac.
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
Seriously?! Ok, I change my vote to even fast food chains need this. Um, no more fruit and yogurt parfaits for me.
My Bio (wedding pics added 7/6)
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It's ridiculous because if you made it at home, you would probably opt for low fat yogurt, fresh fruit, and granola. In restaurants, it's almost always regular yogurt, fruit in syrup, and the most unhealthy granola they can find.
The nutrition info is probably helpful, but in truth, the best way to eat sensibly is to make it at home where you control the quality of your ingredients and the portion size.
It was NOT a McDonald's parfait! Those are still okay in my book - 160 cals I think.
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
I have a LOT of cal numbers in my brain because I did strictly cal counting to lose weight three years ago.
Fast-food wise, Wendy's chili is a safe bet - 170 cals for the small and about 300 for the large. And it's so filling!
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
My other thought on this is that I don't think it will really impact chains that significantly. I found out how many calories are in a plain bean burrito from Taco Bell (370 cals, 10 g of fat) and I still order them if I'm really craving one. *shrug*
In terms of OTHER restaurants (or even perhaps FF chains), I feel like it will cause chefs to be more concientious of what they put on their menus. Granted, I feel like this is wishful thinking, but if they notice a downturn in sales once the nutrition info is printed, maybe they'll come up with a way to make sure the salads aren't twice as much as a burger and fries!
Phew!
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I think some chains have been a lot better lately about offering healthy options that are specifically called out. And it seems like the nutrition info has been available by request for years at Mcdonalds.
Like PP said, I just want to be blissfully unaware sometimes that I'm about to consume 20g of fat. As long as I know that it is an exception and not my daily meal plan, I think it's ok to splurge once in a while. But I do think that restaurants should be held accountable to offer some clearly identifable healthy options. Not salads with 1000 calories but with standard criteria of less than x calories, y grams of fat, carbs, sodium, etc. To be on the list you would have to meet a certain number of the criteria (say 3 of 5 in order to allow for people to customize their diet to their needs). People who are trying to watch their calorie intake can do so without being tricked by loaded salads or sugar-fortified yogurt.
I think this is great! Our nation is so ridiculously unhealthy because of the way we eat, and the overwhelmingly vast majority of our population has no concept of what "healthy" food really is. I blame the media and the way our food is marketed for that. We eat what's cheap, and we eat what's convenient. Most people have no idea what they're really putting in their bodies on a daily basis -- both at home and on the go. I firmly believe that if they knew what they were consuming, they'd think twice before doing so and to me, that is definitely one step in the right direction.
Don't get me wrong, I'd live a miserable existence if I didn't enjoy a cheeseburger or every now and then. But I have a pretty extensive knowledge of the food I consume, what exactly it's made of, and where it comes from. For the people who don't have that awareness, I think it's incredibly important (and brilliant!) to show it to them in terms they can understand -- calorie count.
I think it's fantastic. One more way to get information about what you're eating. Our local pizza place, which I'm sure does not have 5 locations and therefore does not have to do it, puts calorie info on their menu anyway. We've spoken to the owner about it (he's always there and so excited to talk about his food) and he emphasizes fresh and healthy ingredients and no crap so I think for him it's a point of pride that he can put calorie info on the menu--they're not frightening at all.
And I think, given time, they will change restaurants. We went to the California Pizza Kitchen not long after they'd been implemented and the waitress told us that no one orders the spinach artichoke dip any more because now that people know the calories, they don't want it. Maybe that will lead to a system change and a healthier dip--we know it can be healthy and delicious so why not make it that way? I think in the past the reason has been laziness, and the fact that the customer didn't know anyway. Now the customer knows.
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Clearly wasn't my CPK...I totally still order it. Granted, I probably only order it once every two months when I used to order it every time we went...but still. That's one of those "I don't care what the cal count it, this is my blissfully bad treat to myself" and I love it.
That's great to hear about the local place! We always like to try local places and take our guests there whenever possible and it's hard to say how they would be effected by something like this. Some have built their reputation on "homestyle" food and they may suffer but the ones who make the effort to use fresh and local ingredient could be very well rewarded.
I'm late on this... but I think its a good thing. One step in the right direction. Sure everyone knows french fries are bad but a lot of people think chicken or salad = healthy but don't seem to understand that words like breaded/crusted/pan-fried etc = fat. Restaurants add so much butter, cream, oil and sugar to things that should be healthy so that a baked potato or broccoli is a hidden calorie bomb and people should be aware of it. Yes you can read the additional description that tells you the salad is chock full of bacon, cheese, and ranch dressing and you should be able to interpret that its not good for you, but I think if it also says 1200 calories under it, people will be more likely to notice it.
No matter what its not a cure-all to the nation's problem, but I hope it makes restaurants a little more accountable but the people vote with their wallets and the only way restaurants will offer more healthy alternatives is if people stop ordering the ones that are awful for them. I'm less hopeful that this does anything to control the massive portion sizes that restaurants serve because people are so used to seeing massive quantities of food that shrinking portions will likely result in people feeling like they are being ripped off.
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