What if in every restaurant the calorie content was listed right beside the picture?

 In Japan the calories for every dish is right beside it! I wish that this was true for the U.S. It would help us all so much. How can we go about getting this in U.S eateries? Has anyone else seen this where they live? It would help me make smarter decisions while eating out. I'd love it if my college listed the calorie content. It would be SO high...

Would McDonalds lose customers? I don't eat there but if you do would you stop coming if you saw the calorie content as you were ordering?

First post on this account :3

Original Post by when_i_fly_and_look_down:

i don't think most people know what a calorie is, how many are in the foods they eat and how many they need to be consuming in a day.

i think that making restaurants post the calorie content of food would possibly strike up a curiosity in people and hopefully may want to make them learn more.

and what's so grand about a free market?

i'm all about boycotting a company that you feel does not have fair practices but if their were not laws regulating the food we eat we'd be far worse off. people will do anything to make a buck and don't usually care about product safety. when that product is something i put in my body than it had better be regulated.

though i suppose how much you can really trust federal regulation is fairly questionable itself.

Quite frankly, that is their problem. Resources, reading material and other informational aides are out there for those who care to educate themselves. If they don't care, or make unwise choices although informed, it's on their own head.

Unless the Media picked it up in a blitz, the newly revealed numbers would sit largely unperused, except by the caring, concerned, or curious few, much like food labels (and the bureaucratic regulations surrounding these are misleading at the least).

I don't think I care to turn this into a compare-and-contrast of economic systems. My reason for holding laissez-faire capitalism with high esteem? A free-market system exacerbates the consequences and rammifications of an individual's choices, and allows invidiuals to float or flounder as per their own merit.

Our current regulations are mediocre in how well they are enforced, at best, and corruption may occur at any level of the process, regardless of regulation or not. I am for an active citizenry: if we are worried about product safety, as consumers we can push for it through the media (or cause a public outcry for it, as many Muckrackers did during the Progressive era), we can create private organizations, which may work as well as current, government-sanctioned organizations, or better, use economic pressure tactics, etc. I'm all for anarcho-capitalism but, I concede that my idealism is a pipedream. I push for reductions in non-essential regulations first, as society needs to get off its lazy bum before the others may be lifted successfully.

A lot of food establishments have their foods' nutritional information accessible on their websites, so it is available to those who seek it. A regulation such as the mandate set in NYC is paternalistic. But, at any rate: if the people of NYC wanted the law in place, good for them. Better that local citizenry push for local legislations furthering their own interests than the national legislature trying to impose such laws on the national constituency.

Original Post by antagonist_manifesto:

Original Post by when_i_fly_and_look_down:

i don't think most people know what a calorie is, how many are in the foods they eat and how many they need to be consuming in a day.

i think that making restaurants post the calorie content of food would possibly strike up a curiosity in people and hopefully may want to make them learn more.

and what's so grand about a free market?

i'm all about boycotting a company that you feel does not have fair practices but if their were not laws regulating the food we eat we'd be far worse off. people will do anything to make a buck and don't usually care about product safety. when that product is something i put in my body than it had better be regulated.

though i suppose how much you can really trust federal regulation is fairly questionable itself.

Quite frankly, that is their problem. Resources, reading material and other informational aides are out there for those who care to educate themselves. If they don't care, or make unwise choices although informed, it's on their own head.

Unless the Media picked it up in a blitz, the newly revealed numbers would sit largely unperused, except by the caring, concerned, or curious few, much like food labels (and the bureaucratic regulations surrounding these are misleading at the least).

I don't think I care to turn this into a compare-and-contrast of economic systems. My reason for holding laissez-faire capitalism with high esteem? A free-market system exacerbates the consequences and rammifications of an individual's choices, and allows invidiuals to float or flounder as per their own merit.

Our current regulations are mediocre in how well they are enforced, at best, and corruption may occur at any level of the process, regardless of regulation or not. I am for an active citizenry: if we are worried about product safety, as consumers we can push for it through the media (or cause a public outcry for it, as many Muckrackers did during the Progressive era), we can create private organizations, which may work as well as current, government-sanctioned organizations, or better, use economic pressure tactics, etc. I'm all for anarcho-capitalism but, I concede that my idealism is a pipedream. I push for reductions in non-essential regulations first, as society needs to get off its lazy bum before the others may be lifted successfully.

A lot of food establishments have their foods' nutritional information accessible on their websites, so it is available to those who seek it. A regulation such as the mandate set in NYC is paternalistic. But, at any rate: if the people of NYC wanted the law in place, good for them. Better that local citizenry push for local legislations furthering their own interests than the national legislature trying to impose such laws on the national constituency.

sure, the information is out there. but putting the caloric value next to the item (and i believe the law states that it must be in the same font as the price) is obviously going to be a far more effective way of informing people about how much they are consuming.

and it's not restricting anyone's rights. (much in the same way that putting a food label on a product isn't restricting anyone's rights) people can still buy what they want and sell what they want. but to make it obvious to a consumer group, that is increasingly becoming overweight, that they are consuming X amount of calories when they eat a menu item just seems smart.

and i don't think the numbers would sit as largely unpersued as you think. when the numbers are right there every time you order something i think it's almost unavoidable to think about.

as of now unlike the food in grocery stores you have to go out of your way to look up nutritional facts of menu items on the internet. but some people don't have internet access because they can't afford it. and it's these same lower class people that are targeted by companies that provide lower quality food at a cheap price because they know these people can't afford anything better.

i know we can go about changing things in an collectivist way independent of state or federal law but unfortunately as of right now, living under the government that we do, federal mandate of such simple things is the best way to ensure that all consumers are provided with the information they need to make better food choices.

though i don't know if this is something that would realistically happen on a national level because our government doesn't want us to inform ourselves on these matters. there is big money to be made by doctors and drug companies because we are killing ourselves with "food" though i hate calling even half the things that are made available to us food.

I think a lot of resturants would go out of business!

Actually, I think once people saw how many calories was in everything, restaurants would slowly cut calories until people didn't freak out every time they picked up a menu.

I mean, people who go out usually get an appetizer, entree, and dessert. If they saw all the calories, people would split an appetizer and then get the check. Or they'd each get one entree, no dessert, no appetizer. They would lose money.

Original Post by sex_and_candy:

I think a lot of resturants would go out of business!

Actually, I think once people saw how many calories was in everything, restaurants would slowly cut calories until people didn't freak out every time they picked up a menu.

I mean, people who go out usually get an appetizer, entree, and dessert. If they saw all the calories, people would split an appetizer and then get the check. Or they'd each get one entree, no dessert, no appetizer. They would lose money.

that's true. i don't think a lot of people want to know ho many calories are in their food.

I dont see how (even just "estimating" the calories) that could be hard.  With this lovely website that has a calculator for recipes.  All a resturant would have to do is pay someone to type in just the ingredients and how much it is to serve for their recipes.  Even just the small family places could do this.  Then just type it in when they print the menus. 

Love Eun Chan

a.k.a -->esaetpirts<--

Having calories on the internet is inconvenient.  If I am at a resteraunt, how am I supposed to peruse calorie information from the internet?

I don't necessarily think resteraunts should put nutrition facts on the menu in everyone's face but at least keep a single menu with this at the counter or whatever so the person can know if they want to.

It'd stop restaurants from having those calorific bombshells on the menu.

Places like Olive Garden would probably invest a bit more time into finding delicious meal options that weren't a whopping 1200 calories.  It wouldn't be that hard I suspect to take it down to 800 you know?

I'd love it because sometimes I make the mistake of thinking that eating something out that I can make at home means that it's got similar calories to what I calculated at home, and I get some nasty surprises!  Seriously I don't know how they pack so many of the buggers into what seem like such simple dishes!