Thursday, February 18, 2010

calorie counts?!

Is NYC now requiring restaurant menus to include calorie counts right next to the menu item? Bizarre! And kind of awesome. See Exhibit A here.

I love New York. I miss it. It's wonderful to be back.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I've gotta say that I hate this. Hate it. It seems like such a bad way to battle obesity. I'm a pretty healthy eater, but sometimes I like to eat junky food. I don't want to see a calorie count next to the burger and onion rings I have for dinner. If the roots of obesity are ignorance (which I don't think is true), then the way to combat that is to teach people about nutrition and what are generally fattening foods. For example, fried foods have more calories, fruits and vegetables have less. To me it feels similar (though obviously not the same) to telling people not to have sex to reduce their chance of contracting HIV. The real issue is to teach them to have sex or in this case eat responsibly.
I admit it's an awful analogy, but I'm clearly struggling for words on this sleepy Friday. Do you get what I mean?

I think the real root of obesity is a combination of many people's use of eating as an emotional comfort, addiction to unhealthy foods (which is chemical), and a lack of education of children.

saisai said...

i kind of agree with you, navs. 1, i don't think ignorance is the problem when it comes to fast food, and b, i don't think the way to battle whatever ignorance does exist is through calorie counts. everyone knows onion rings are not as good for you as apples. i mean, duh. i know governments have a tendency to be condescending, but this is just ridiculous.

BUT. yes, your analogy is pretty awful. the idea is not to say "don't eat this!", but rather to say "know what you're eating!". so, with HIV/sex, more like telling people to ask their partners their HIV status and to protect themselves when they're not sure.

i'm also not a fan of limiting our problems with food to "obesity." we do have a serious unhealthy eating problem in this country, and a huge part of it is when we eat stuff that's essentially not food--that's been processed to the point of being beyond food. so what do calorie counts really bring to the table here? i'd be a much bigger fan of ingredients lists (what's in your food), source information for particular ingredients (where's your food from), and dating (when the food was prepared). THOSE are the things we're ignorant of when we eat out. calories are only part of the picture, and not the most important part at that.

Unknown said...

that's a food platform i can get behind :)