NYC's calories-on-menus law upheld

[brooklynite]

Source: AP

NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge on Wednesday upheld a city regulation requiring calories to be posted on the menu boards of some chain restaurants, calling the rule a reasonable approach to health officials' goal of reducing obesity.

The judge turned back a challenge from the New York State Restaurant Association, a voice for the food service industry.

"It seems reasonable to expect that some consumers will use the information disclosed ... to select lower calorie meals ... and these choices will lead to a lower incidence of obesity," U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell said.

New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene believes the regulation, which takes effect Monday, will prevent 130,000 New Yorkers from becoming obese and will stop another 30,000 from developing diabetes over the next five years.

Read more: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90336GG0&show_article=1

---

Its sort of sad this this kind of regulation is necessary, and that so many customers don't think through what they eat on their own.

[Snarkturian Clone]

1. What a shitload of fuck!!!!

Since NYC did it, now every other city in the northeast is gonna do it just to be fashionable. Philly would have never gone through with the smoking ban or trans-fats ban if NYC hadn't done it first.

I talked about this in another tread too... basically another law from a group of little wusses who can't take care of themselves who have brought on MORE government into our lives so they can be slightly more comfortable.

[muryan]

2. I don't mind this

I dont think this is going to create more government intrusion once the legality of such a practice is determined across the country. I just started a fairly strict diet and before going out to eat, I usually spend half an hour or so looking at nutrition facts online. It would be nice if they were just on the menu to begin with.

[greiner3]

4. So you are against nutrition labels;

Information about drugs themselves? I want to know what I put into my mouth and allowing industry to tell me without oversight is crazy. Maybe you believe what a snake-oil salesman tells you about his product; I don't!

[Snarkturian Clone]

6. No one goes out to eat does so to eat healthy.

Nutrition is pseudoscience anyway. Might as well use astrology to determine what to eat.

[gratuitous]

10. Wait; is the information bad or good?

Out of one side of your mouth, the calorie information is completely useless. Out of the other side of your mouth, we get that this is unreasonable governmental interference.

If it makes no difference, then why not have that information on the menu? But if the information helps consumers make a more informed and healthy choice for themselves, then why not have that information on the menu? Please use just one side of your mouth to answer. Thank you.

[Snarkturian Clone]

12. Where the fuck do you get that?

It is bad for BOTH reasons: It's bad because it's government interference and it's bad to a lesser extent because nutrition is a pseudoscience.

[depakid]

14. Wow. I've heard a lot of libertarian quackery on DU

Disclosure laws are "government interference" and nutrition "pseudoscience."

All in the came sentence!

:crazy:

[LanternWaste]

43. A DUZY nomination if I've ever seen one....

A DUZY nomination if I've ever seen one.... :wow:

[Paladin]

18. Just What The Hell Is Your Problem, Anyway?

Go to restaurants and eat whatever the fuck you want---the Evil Nanny State isn't forcing you to consume food that's good for you, no matter how much you and your fellow whiney-assed libertarians wish that was the case. If other people want more nutritional information at restaurants, just who are you to proclaim that they aren't entitled to such information? What unbelievable arrogance.

And by the way: your statement that nobody goes to a restaurant to eat healthy is one of the stupidest things I've ever read here at DU. Every decent eating establishment I know of has a large salad selection on the menu, and there are plenty of people wolfing down the rabbit food--dressing on the side. Deal with it....

[Snarkturian Clone]

26. My problem is misuse of government when there's bigger fish to fry.

And by the way: your statement that nobody goes to a restaurant to eat healthy is one of the stupidest things I've ever read here at DU. Every decent eating establishment I know of has a large salad selection on the menu, and there are plenty of people wolfing down the rabbit food--dressing on the side. Deal with it....

The restaurants effected by this law are NOT places people go to eat healthy. People don't walk into a McDonald's saying "I'll find something healthy to eat in here". Even their salads are bad for you. The point is that a lot of these restaurants provide info on their nutritional facts but you have to search it out and find it yourself. Using the government to make it so that it's sitting there on the menu for the 1% of people that actually care is an example of misuse of government.

Think of how that menu board is going to look ...

BIG MAC: 900 fucking million calories.....$2.49

It'll just be another message to visitors from other countries that we can't take care of ourselves.

[Nihil]

37. Snark at the problem then instead of this suggestion to address it

> It'll just be another message to visitors from other countries that
> we can't take care of ourselves.

I think most (sighted) visitors will quickly work that out long before
they see the calorie count on the menu ...

> Think of how that menu board is going to look ...
>
> BIG MAC: 900 fucking million calories.....$2.49

So maybe it will wake up a few people?
And, in so doing, give them a chance to steer a more sensible path?

The way you (and a few others on this thread) rant on about this issue,
you'd think that the government were *banning* the food, not just providing
information on it!
:crazy:

[Snarkturian Clone]

38. I know it sounds crazy but

this is how the door gets opened for greater offenses.

[Threedifferentones]

51. Huh?

Last time I checked the study of nutrition involved a lot of chemistry...

[PuppyBismark]

5. It is a Great Law

I have been on a diet for the past 6 months and have lost significant weight. The key to this diet has been to watch what I eat and how many calories there are in each serving. My biggest challenge is to eat at restaurants because I have no idea what the calorie content is for each item. Is it too much to ask to have restaurants make these calculations? I don't think so. There are plenty of good web sites they can use to do the calculation of the calorie content.

Good for New York and I hope the rest of the county follows. Without this information, we are just guessing.

:toast:

[Snarkturian Clone]

8. No one going out to eat does so to eat healthy NT

[Ms. Toad]

20. Probably not,

But unfortunately some of us have eat out, and need to be able to make the best of a bad situation. When I do not have to go out for lunch, it is carried in. I have been eating the same two lunches virtually every work day since Oct 1 - I would prefer other choices. Absent information as to the nutritional content of other items, I can't risk it.

I have lost nearly 50 lbs since October to avoid becoming diabetic. I need to know what I am eating in order to avoid putting the weight back on. Unfortunately, there are a number of places which refuse to provide the information voluntarily.

[tpsbmam]

29. Bull.

People eat out for a wide variety of reasons. I go out for occasional nice dinners. My neighbors, on the other hand, stop and pick up food because both husband and wife work 2 jobs each (and for him, sometimes 2 full-time jobs). I've had their kids with me sometimes and I've had to stop because errands took longer than I thought and the kids were starving. Believe me, it's hard to make somewhat healthier choices for them when I stop and get them food without breaking MY bank.

Not everyone who buys prepared food does so at nice restaurants. People do what they can afford and for many, they do what they have time to do. My neighbor cooks very healthy food at home (her kids are among the rare kids who'd rather have fruit & veggies than anything else....that's thanks to her) but there have been times when she simply doesn't have time and they resort to fast food.

As a native New Yorker (no longer live there), I'd welcome information about the foods prepared at places like Zabars as well as at individual restaurants. I hope they extend the law to include those kinds of places. I'm one of the people who might, indeed, make somewhat healthier choices when I go out to dinner in that event. Sometimes I do, indeed, throw caution to the wind when I go out but others I don't and think I'm making the healthier choices. That isn't always the case when there are hidden ingredients that swell the amount of fat and calories in food -- it all depends on how the chef cooks certain foods.

[Snarkturian Clone]

31. The restaurants targeted by this law

are not places people go to eat healthy.

[tpsbmam]

35. But many people do, indeed, try to make healthier choices

when they go to these places. They're deceived into thinking they're making healthier choices when they're not (e.g., look at the salads thread here). Posting this information may also push people into making healthier choices at these places or, as the industry fears, many of them avoiding fast food altogether when they realize what the hell they're eating.

[LanternWaste]

44. There is a specific and relevant difference...

There is a specific and relevant difference between going out to eat 'healthy' and going out to eat 'healthier'.

[Ms. Toad]

19. Ditto.

Down 46 lbs since Oct 1. Unfortunately, the reason I needed to lose 50 lbs (I'm almost there) is because I have to eat out 5 days a week. I have lost the weight by limiting myself to the two things on the menu I have a solid guess as to the calorie/fat/sugar content. I would love to have more options, since - frankly - I don't know if I will be able to make myself stick to those two items once the weight is gone. Without nutritional information, straying from the salad with pre-packaged and labeled dressing or grilled chicken puts me at risk for packing it right back on.

[LeftyMom]

7. How are people supposed to take care of themselves with no info?

:shrug:

Giving people a little information so they can make better choices isn't a bad idea. It's like the stickers at the dealer that list a car's MPG. Nobody's saying you can't buy a Hummer, but at least you'll know why it's a bad idea, and maybe you'll make a better choice.

[joeglow3]

13. Hey, I thought this heaping pile of cheese, bacon and fries was healthy!

Really? Do we REALLY need this?

[depakid]

15. If you watch fast food commercials- you might just think so!

wholesome and healthy is one of things they dishonestly market- and I guarantee you that A LOT of people are surprised when the discover just HOW MANY calories (and how much fat) is in some of those "healthy" menu items at the various chain stores.....

[LeftyMom]

21. Considering the number of crazy high calorie SALADS those places sell,

or that they pass the ridiculously high calorie chicken sandwiches off as a healthy option, apparently.

Actually, I think they should have to list the ingredients too, but I have this crazy idea that people actually want to know what they're eating.

[tpsbmam]

30. Exactly.....analyses have shown

that some of the salads and other "healthy" options are actually higher in fat and calories than some of the burgers and other unhealthy food these places sell. Unless people are given the information, there are many who don't know that and think they're choosing the healthier options.

[WildEyedLiberal]

24. HAHA do you watch the Angry Nintendo Nerd???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjUz8IT0CYg

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Snarkturian Clone]

25. Yo, I had a chance to meet him last saturday and totally forgot about it NT

[La Lioness Priyanka]

40. regulating business is a bad thing?

[Codedonkey]

48. This isn't a bad thing...

I would like to know how many calories I'm ingesting... It will allow me to help take of myself even better... Right now I usually check for nutritional information on the companies website before I go, but that isn't always possible,

[noamnety]

3. I'm really glad the nutritional info is on food packages

and I use that info to make more intelligent purchases. I don't see this as being any different, and now that we're used to it, I don't hear anyone complaining about food packages having to include that info. Not sure why people would object to it. Consumers can "think through" information better if that information contains actual facts.

[OKthatsIT]

16. Is that required in NY? It isn't anywhere else.

The US has lost it's national protection powers to the WTO/WHO, CODEX ALIMINTARIUS laws. So labeling won't be a requirement in the future.

WHY? Because eugenicists, posing as 'health experts', don't want you to know what's in your food.

What's in your water? You'll never know.
What food is GMO? You'll never know.
What's being irradiated? You'll never know.
What's grown in toxic soil? You'll never know.
What chemicals are added? You'll never know.
What pesticides were used? You'll never know.

And you don't have a right to ask, either. WHY? Because nobody is being informed that new laws come with the WTO contract. The WTO was NEVER ratified by Congress.

AND, BTW, this includes controlling all vitamin/mineral supplements, drugs and medical proceedures. The US standards are on the way out, like it or not.

DECEMBER 2009 is the deadline to sign our country over to the new worldwide/corporate standards of the WTO. WE WILL BE COMPLETELY CONTROLLED BY THE NWO HEALTH LAWS...with little hope of ever getting our Health Rights back.

[jmowreader]

46. Have you actually READ the Codex Alimentarius?

Codex Standard 1-1985 covers labeling of prepackaged foods.

That's right. Standard 1. The FIRST standard. And it's a better labeling standard than the FDA uses.

I know this because I read the Codex, or at least the table of contents (I did read Standard 1 and some of the other standards, such as the standard for Kimchi--which should be revised because the official Codex standard for Kimchi covers cabbage kimchi and not the other fourteen kinds), and not the freeper bullshit against it.

I like the Codex. It will do two things for us, both good: it will help get Monsanto's frankenfood exposed for what it is, and it will keep the Chinese from selling floor sweepings with antifreeze dumped on them as a Great New Sweetener (or whatever atrocity the Chinese come up with this week).

[slampoet]

9. How is a chef supposed to figure out the calorie count of truffles? fresh elderberries? THEY CAN'T

Truffles are nearly $3000 a pound. How are you going to burn one in a furnace to determine it's calorie count?
How are you going to send a fresh berry with only a two week season to a lab and wait back for results?
How do you run a restaurant that changes the items on the menu every day?

There is a reason that this applies to ONLY CHAINS and it has nothing to do with health.



Also notice the classism in this law. The law doesn't apply to places that the city council are likely to go for dinner. Everybody in the food service industry knows that once you eliminate fast food, that the places that have the highest calorie count are ALWAYS the higher priced restaurants.


The fact is that if this law applied to quality restaurants, it would REQUIRE the quality restaurant to LIE TO YOU, just to do it's job. So the people in the city council just decided to do their favorite watering holes a special favor.


I predict that this will not save one single case of obesity and if it is extended to other restaurants it will also be the best thing that ever happened to New Jersey for fine dining.


Also this doesn't cover the PRIMARY source of extra calories when dining out, ALCOHOL!!

[LeftyMom]

22. did you miss the "menu board of chains" part?

I haven't seen any ads for the McTruffleburger or the BK Wild Harvested Berry Compote.

And anyhow, the values for those items are readily available in programs that calculate nutritional info- nobody sends each individual item to a lab and anxiously waits to hear back, they just look it up.

[slampoet]

23. Read more than the headline next time.

Really.

[LeftyMom]

28. I quoted from the article, genius. Usually, that would indicate having read it.

" The new rule applies to restaurants in the city that are part of chains with at least 15 outlets across the country. That includes fast-food places like McDonald's and such sit-down chains such as Olive Garden and T.G.I. Friday's."

They have the resources to figure out easily the calorie content of their menu items, which are standardized across the chain. Furthermore, large chains are geared toward middle and lower class tastes, and are definitely not in the habit of using obscure or rare ingredients.

[slampoet]

33. of my post and not the article.

Jeez.


Try not to be so belligerent please.

Read people's posts.

[slampoet]

50. And since you haven't apologized, I can safely assume that you have more anger than manners

or literacy.


How sad for your children.

[tpsbmam]

34. Chefs can, indeed, figure this information out and if they can't,

they can hire a nutritionist to do it for them. We know the nutritional content of the ingredients of foods, we know the nutritional content of truffles & berries -- it wouldn't be that difficult to calculate nutritional content of new dishes.

[bitchkitty]

36. That is so dramatic, but so untrue.

They won't have to figure out the calories in each truffle or berry. They can use the information which is already out there:

Calorie King

[La Lioness Priyanka]

41. its for restaurants with over 15 stores. chain restaruants. truffles are not used at chain stores

[AlCzervik]

11. i think it's good, this way people will have the information and maybe they'll make a better

choice or maybe they won't but at least they'll have the information.

I have a fat and calorie guide from my hmo and i was thumbing through it and wow, some chain food stuff is really, really bad, the blooming onion thing for example has like 150 grams of fa and about a bazillion calroies, now it's not like i wasn't aware that thing was terrible but to actually see the numbers on it was staggering.

[OKthatsIT]

17. IT's just a conditioning phase...for more controlling laws

Read up on CODEX ALIMINTARIUS and the WTO.

[Snarkturian Clone]

27. I agree with your subject line.

This will lead to taxes on unhealthy foods inside of 20 years, then banning of unhealthy foods inside of 50 years. People will be rejoicing on DU when it happens.

People think I'm nuts about this and are calling me a libertarian and shit but let me tell ya, if we don't stop these little intrusions it opens the door for bigger ones.

[LanternWaste]

45. you have a specific list of which intrusions by government are valid...

Then I'm sure you have a specific list of which "little" intrusions by government are valid and which are not (or is it just a "gut feeling" you get when presented by a specific instance...)?

Or do you hold that any and all "little" intrusions by government is not good?

[acmavm]

32. Common sense and logic are a thing of the past. If you want

the complete breakdown on your meal, eat at home. Or bring a babysitter to pick out your food for you if you're not smart enough to figure out that unless you're eating in the local health food restaurant, there just might be some calories and trans-fats in that there food.

Good grief, people are constantly bitching about the government controlling every aspect of our lives and then they want it to count their calories for 'em.

[krabigirl]

39. totally agree.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

42. i want government to regulate business and quit pretending that an individual consumer

cannot be duped by a large corporation.

to me this is as stupid as saying, you want to be safe, stop driving, walk everwhere

[Ms. Toad]

47. I don't want the government to count my calories.

I do want restaurants to provide me with the information that I don't have access to without their cooperation.

I know darn well that there might be calories and trans-fat in the food. Unfortunately, since I don't have a choice about where I eat five days a week, I need the restaurants to provide me with the information so that I can make the healthiest choices available. I'm getting very tired of eating the same two meals every day since October - the only two "safe" meals on the menu. There might be others I could eat, but since I can't figure out the hidden ingredients - I can't risk it.

[Codedonkey]

49. I want companies to give me information so I can count my own calories...

[fed_up_mother]

52. This kind of regulation could be very onerous on smaller establishments

I realize the ruling only applies to chain restaurants, but this has a way of spreading.

I foresee companies having to hire nutritionists to make these determinations, and lawsuits when a customer realizes that the amount of calories on her plate is more than what the menu says.

This could be a costly nightmare.

[Anwen]

53. Good!

People have a right to know exactly what they are consuming, and therefore make informed decisions based on nutrition information.

[Traction311]

54. Another big-government law

Our freedom is slowly chipping away, while some DUers applaud. :(