Some of you may be aware that certain restaurants are now legally required to provide the nutritional information for their offerings to their clientele. Now you can see exactly how many grams of saturated fat those scrumptious French fries have, and as for that fabulous burger, well that too shall hide no caloric secrets from you. The reason behind this is to help people make better food choices, as far too great a proportion of our population is obese, and that, in turn, leads to increased health care costs for everyone, trim and not so trim alike.
Now, while I am in favor of this, my mister is not. He thinks people should be more responsible for their food consumption on their own--that restaurants should not have to inform their patrons how sodium and fat riddled are their meals. While it is true that people OUGHT to employ common sense and will power when it comes to their food (and their waistlines), it is also true that many do not, and anything that makes people at least think twice before stuffing some fat laden treat into their mouths has got to have some merit.
What do you think? Does this mandate remove personal responsibility or does it help people make better choices?
I don't think it helps one bit. However, people who count their calories want to know exactly how many calories they're eating, and waiters aren't allowed to provide that information. Also, if a waiter lies, they can't hide behind it.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a help and a hindrance. If people want to know how many calories and saturated fat-packed foods they are eating, they should know what they are doing to themselves. However, others might just feel guilty about what they are eating, and sometimes stress leads to more eating... you can see how that could go wrong.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I really don't think it makes a difference. To someone who loves to eat, calories don't really mean anything. Eating is like a habit for them. Giving them a number like 890 calories doesn't really matter to them. I think that they should be responsible for themselves, instead of having to be told how many calories they are consuming, when they should know for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is important for people to hold some responsibility on seeing how many calories, fat, sodium, etc. they consume each day. However, at restaurants sometimes their basic ham sandwiches, or pastas have more calories than you think it would have. For instance, at Cheesecake Factory, the KID'S pasta is 1,000 calories. That is half of your needed daily consumption. Homemade pasta doesn't usually contain this much calories, therefore people would assume that this is a healthy choice for them at a restaurant. In reality, its not. That is why its great for restaurants to show nutritional information for their offerings.
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