As we speak, there is legislation being proposed that may completely change the way you eat out. If you've been to New York City or live there, you already know what I'm talking about. Walk into most NYC restaurants (except fine dining and smaller restaurants) and you will see calories posted front and center. It is called the Dietary Data Disclosure Law. It's already in effect in NYC and is making its way to California where it will be implemented by 2011. Other states are likely to follow. Labeling menus is now a federal bill sitting before congress.
How will this impact restaurants? It may just alter what your favorite eatery serves and how they label their menu. The Wall Street Journal reported on September 16th that the Macaroni Grill recently revamped their menu. They came up with healthier and lighter fares to keep their customers returning. Apparently, people were not thrilled when the true calorie content was revealed. One of the Macaroni Grill's desserts was recently deemed "The worst in America." The dessert contained as many calories as some people eat in a day. Now, they are turning over a new leaf. Expect to see many more healthy options that are tasty too.
Here is the issue. We all want to eat healthy. Yet, is calorie count a gauge of this? We have to keep in mind that calories are only one aspect of food composition that helps you gauge how healthy it is. Basically, you look at calories and say to yourself one of two things, "high or low." It's a little bit like weight. Weight alone is a very limited source of information. You have to know how tall someone is to put weight into context. For example, is 150lbs a healthy or unhealthy weight? Again, that depends on how tall you are and if you are a man or a woman. Also, you must know exactly what someone eats and if they are getting adequate nutrition to determine if they are healthy. We've all known thin people who have very unhealthy diets. So calorie content really doesn't signify "health" per say. It tells you the energy density of food and if it puts you at risk for eating a lot of calories or a little.
Some people love the idea and new law. In fact, a survey of New Yorkers found that the majority of people were in favor of the new menu information. In general, it may help people make much more informed choices. It is often difficult, almost impossible, to eyeball some dishes and know how healthy they truly are. On the TV show The Drs today the well informed doctors and several audience members admitted that they had wrongly assumed they were eating a healthy salad only to find that it was anything but healthy. This law holds restaurants accountable for being honest and making healthy dishes (at reasonable calorie counts!). Without urging, would restaurants do it? It's expense and complex to change a menus.
On the other hand, for people with eating disorders, posting calories can wreak havoc on their emotions and is very triggering of eating disordered behavior. The message their treatment professionals give them -- let go of calorie counting. Making choices only on calorie content is a recipe for danger. Calories can take over your life if you let them and suck the joy out of eating completely. Instead of using calories to gauge health, people with eating disorders focus on balance, variety and eating mindfully.
Basically, ignoring or obsessing about calories is a problem. The trick is to raise your awareness of what you are eating. Think content not calories. Does this food give me nutrition, balance and a reasonable amount of energy for what my body needs?
How else can we broach the issue of helping people make wise, informed decisions without taking the joy out of eating? Perhaps give people all the facts like putting the complete label like the kind you see on the back of a cereal box? The problem is that it takes time and education to decipher complex food labels. How about giving an overall health rating which is based on a number of different factors (such as calorie content, level of energy density, vitamins and minerals etc).
What are your suggestions?
Overall, we all want to eat healthier and be more mindful of what we put into our mouths. It's so much easier said than done, labels or no labels.
By the author of 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food and Eating Mindfully
I started dating my Type 1 diabetic boyfriend over a year ago. Since I've met him, I've dropped 25lbs. All of my friends and family are shocked by the transformation (I now look slim and healthy, I was a little on the pudgy side before) and they're all asking me how I do it.
Well, I didn't look at calories, but if the calories are there, it makes me feel good to pick a food without a high calorie content. And I eat 3 very well-balanced meals a day because my boyfriend must. I try to have a carbohydrate, a protein, and a veggie or fruit at every meal.
Calorie counting, for me, only leads to stress, which leads me to convince myself that its ok to "cheat." Why should I be cheating at anything? When I want a piece of chocolate, I'll have a little piece of chocolate. But, I won't freak out that there's another 200 calorie addition to my day.
Knowing calories are as important as knowing what in your food, but its not the only thing. And if one believes that it is, it'll just cause heightened stress. (IMHO)
Many of these herbicides and pesticides have been shown to influence people hormonally, and can affect whether what we eat turns to fat or gets burned up as fuel.
I no longer eat fish at restaurants. This happned when the majority of fish consumed came from fish farms. These fish contain very low amounts of EFA's. Then there is also the problem of rendered beef. Which is fed to farmed fish. Recently it's been shown that fish can contract mad cow disease, from rendered beef.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many hundreds of laws already on the books, but since they aren't enforced, it's likely that one law will make little difference.
As long as corporate food giants, do as they please, endangering the publics health then no amount of regulation will help. Until then I will avoid eating out, and will cook at home.
Teaching people how to be aware and understand the effect of different foods on their bodies would go a lot further than forcing resturaunts to print reems of data.
All very interesting to consider, and there is nothing like a practical approach, learning from others, and the having that moment when you can understand that ingredient and take it from there.
The point of all this cooking I have done and the testing and all, is that good wholesome food nourishes you. Snacks, processed foods, fast foods, produce covered in poison, meats injected with all kinds of things in global factory farms will kill you, make you gain weight and your appetite unsatisfied.
Good food takes time, but much prep work such as chopping vegetables can be done ahead of time and the carefully sealed until you are ready to to combine in the recipe. It does take planning. Having committed myself to being a good chef and learning as much as possible, I have found that a good meal, the act of "breaking bread" as it were, is intrinsic to the human condition, establishes bonds in families and friends,and is recognized in every culture.
A tax on meat is at least as apropos. Heavy meat consumption is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and some types of cancer; deforestation caused by industrialized meat production contributes significantly to global warming; nearly 20% of all greenhouse gases come from livestock production, according to a report by United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization; precious supplies of fresh water are wasted in meat production, as 1 kg of animal protein requires about 100 times more water than 1 kg of grain protein.
Switching to fish is no solution: many fish are now contaminated with mercury and/or PCBs, and scientists believe that over-fishing is an environmental time-bomb.
Tax sugary beverages? Certainly.
Tax meat (and fish)? Excellent idea, both because eating less meat is healthier for the individual, and because a radical reduction in meat production would be good for the health of the planet, and therefore, for the health of all of us who live here.
Sincerely,
Sheila Leavitt
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/308/6945/1667
http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v90/n1/full/6601441a.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19297458
http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0612sp1.htm
I find that when I have a high carbohydrate diet from the aforementioned foods, I gain weight very quickly and get constipated as opposed to a diet of proteins (meat) and vegetables which causes me to lose weight and be regular.
Should I be penalized because most carbohydrates are bad for me.
I understand where you are coming from, but I am unsettled about taxation as a punitive approach to healthy eating. Also, I am now exploring vegan recipes, but I would have to say I enjoy classic recipes from every culture, and as someone who really cooks every day, I would not want meat and fish taxed so I could not afford it.
I would certainly add that poison in our produce, and hormones and dangerous practices of the global meat industry must be checked. I can also understand the dangers of too much meat in a diet as you have shown.
I would suggest,however, that your approach is rather "police" like and authoritarian, diminishing your goals of a healthy populace and a healthy planet.
I would ask you to re-consider your approach so it could be seen as too impossible for the typical family, or treading on people's freedom of choice.
Let's wait and see how this turns out. The labelling may be fine-tuned at a later date.
Finally, calorie counts at fast food joints is one way to make people wonder if that double-decker with fries and a soft drink truly is necessary, if calories matter to them. Learning about calories can be one step to learning about nutrition...last I heard, none of this is taught in schools...
I haven't counted calories in years. If I limit my carbohydrate intake to non-starchy vegetables and get plenty of fat in my diet, I find I eat very little and control my weight easily, as long as get plenty of exercise.
Moderation and enjoyment are key. Let's get back to basics and common sense.
But surely food is to be enjoyed as well.
Does the average person not have any idea that fast food burgers are fattening, unhealthy for you if you eat them every day, maybe even every week? That a green salad IS healthy...then drowned in Ranch dressing it is UN-healthy!?
When I go out to dinner the last thing I want to see on the menu is a calorie-counter index. I know that most of the time I need to watch my waist, and eat healthy, but I don't eat out a lot, so I want to enjoy my meal. I know that if I order the grilled fish, it may have more butter or whatever in it than my home-cooked fish, but still it is pretty healthy, I know if I order a burger & fries, I'm blowing it!
Does the average person really need this on their menus?
1 in 3 adults now becomes diabetic, elitist! I am in favor full disclosure. i would like a list of every ingredient in each product thrown in a dish.
i like to know whether or not i'm consuming a bio-engineered, hormone disrupting, chock full of hydrogenated oil/high fructose corn syrup, saccharin, artificial dyes, otherwise chemically laden, disease-producing delight.
about your grilled fish--it's grill marks are carcinogens & its mercury content is too. Still think it's pretty healthy?
average persons have the right to know what they are eating. all persons do.
The main issue is that the human body is not able to cope with wide varieties of different food stuffs. The different enzymes that digest different food directly compete with each other. The short of it is to keep your meals simple, eat lots of salad, and meat is good for you when eaten separate from starches.
Nutrition has a long ways to go in this country. But yeah, in the end it's about enjoying life. Better to be grateful for the food than overly picky, fussy, counting, or worrying. What I'd like to see is more organic-food restaurants and for the government to promote organic foods rather than trying to regulate them out of business.