Restaurants and Calories: Advocates Seek Full Disclosure
CBS 60 Minutes reports on the growing concern about calories in restaurant foods; calories that some restaurants refuse to reveal. Read more on the story below, after the jump.
People are getting many more calories from the food they eat out than they think, especially when they think they are eating in some place healthy, says a Cornell University food and marketing professor. This kind of public misperception is great enough that health officials want to force food chains to put calories on menu boards.
60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl reports on the battle brewing between health advocates and the restaurant industry over calorie disclosure this Sunday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
“When people are eating in a restaurant that they think is healthy, people grossly underestimate how much they eat by about 50 percent,” says Brian Wansink, the Cornell professor. In one test at a food court, Wansink asks a customer to guess the caloric content of his 12-inch sub with mayonnaise, chips and juice from Subway, a chain that bills its food as a healthier fast-food choice. The young man expresses shock at learning the meal he thought was about 300 calories was 1,390. “That’s more than half [the calories] … you’re supposed to eat in a day?” he asks.
It is just such underestimating and overeating that helps fuel the nation’s epidemic of obesity believes New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden. He initiated a regulation in New York City requiring fast food chains to post the calories on their menu boards. Seattle passed a similar law, as did the California State legislature (though vetoed by the governor), plus 18 other states and municipalities are considering menu labeling. It is a fact that many chains already disclose nutritional information on Web sites or in-store in brochures and tray liners, but Frieden says no one sees it. “What restaurants are doing now is a sham. They’re putting information on Web sites and they know perfectly well that very few people see it there.”
Visit the CBS Web site for the rest of the article, video and photos.
For more information about NYC Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden’s efforts and to read the legal papers, visit the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) Web site.