Posted on 06/01/2006 4:44:14 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - In the fight against obesity, restaurants should shrink portions, provide more nutritional information and bundle such calorie-laden food as burgers and pizza with healthier side dishes, according to a federally commissioned report to be made public Friday.
The report, requested and funded by the Food and Drug Administration, lays out ways to help consumers manage their intake of calories from restaurants, cafeterias and ready-to-eat meals bought at grocery stores. It does not address school meals.
"As of this decade, Americans are eating away-from-home foods more frequently and consuming more calories from away-from-home establishments than ever before," the report says in making the case for increasing the availability of foods and drinks packed with fewer calories but more nutrients.
The 136-page report prepared by The Keystone Center, a nonprofit policy group, does not explicitly link dining out with the rising tide of obesity, but it does cite numerous studies that suggest there is a connection. It also notes that Americans now consume fully one-third of their daily intake of calories outside the home. And as of 2000, the average American gobbled up and slurped down 300 more calories a day than was the case 15 years earlier, according to Agriculture Department statistics cited in the report.
Today, 64 percent of Americans are overweight, including the 30 percent who are obese, according to the report. It pegs the annual medical cost of the problem at nearly $93 billion.
Consumer advocates increasingly have heaped some of the blame on restaurant chains such as McDonald's. A new children's book and soon-to-be-released movie, both associated with the 2001 book "Fast Food Nation," have kept the issue at the fore.
In response, McDonald's has added entree-sized salads and the option to swap the fries and soft drink in children's meals for apple slices and juice. But when Americans dined out in 2005, the top three menu choices remained hamburgers, french fries and pizza, according to The NPD Group, a market research firm.
Still, restaurants increasingly are offering varied portion sizes, foods made with whole grains, more diet drinks and entree salads to fit the dietary needs of their customers, said Sheila Cohn, director of nutrition policy for the National Restaurant Association. But those restaurants can't make people eat what they don't want to, said Cohn, who contributed to the forum that produced the report. Other participants included government officials, academics and consumer advocates.
"It's really difficult for a restaurant to gauge what a person should be eating. Can you imagine going into a restaurant and the waiter saying, 'Sir, your pants look a little tight today. I have to bring you the fresh fruit plate rather than the chocolate cake for desert'" Cohn said, adding: "It's not really the responsibility of restaurants to restrict the foods that they offer."
The report encourages restaurants to shift the emphasis of their marketing to lower-calorie choices and include more of those options on menus. In addition, restaurants could jigger portion sizes and the variety of foods available in mixed dishes to reduce the overall number of calories taken in by diners.
Bundling meals with more fruits and vegetables also could improve nutrition. And letting consumers know how many calories are contained in a meal also could guide the choices they make, according to the report. Just over half of the nation's 287 largest restaurant chains now make at least some nutrition information available, said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
"If companies don't tell them, people have no way of knowing how many calories they are being served at restaurants. And chances are, they are being served a lot more than they realize," said Wootan, adding that Congress should give the FDA the authority to require such disclosure.
But the report notes that the laboratory work needed to calculate the calorie content of a menu item can cost $100, or anywhere from $11,500 to $46,000 to analyze an entire menu. Cohn said that makes it unfeasible for restaurants, especially when menus can change daily.
An FDA spokesman declined to make agency officials available to discuss the report ahead of a news conference scheduled for Friday.
Representatives of four restaurant chains — including Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell — who contributed to the report did not return calls seeking comment.
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On the Net:
Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov/
I never eat out.
Well, except when I go to Toronto, but they wouldn't be subject to FDA regs anyhow.
I do wish they would offer some sort of caffine free diet drink aside from decaf coffee.
But I guess that water is good for me.
I wish restaurants would just do this on their own. Charge a buck less and give us smaller portions. I live in a town that is FAT..FAT...FAT...everyone is fat. Whenever we go to restaurants it's like each one is trying to outdo the next. We have casinos with their ALL YOU CAN EAT buffets and I see all the morbidly obese people gorging themselves. I'm sorry, but it's disgusting. Yes, they have a right to do it, but as a society, it's ok to question each other. Of course the government shouldn't get involved...but people better wake up.
Why do we spend money on such silly research? Methinks so that others can tell someone how they should behave.
Hey! Where's the strawberry pie and whipped cream? Man, nobody fills me up like Shoneys used to...
Thanks FDA, for wanting businesses to give us less for our money. :rolls eyes: JUST BUY SMALLER SIZES; instead of a large buy a small. Whats so hard about that?
Actually this kind of nannyism already has had an impact. Wendy's use to give you a great biggie fries with a combo, but now only give you a biggie, and its because of Supersize Me and all the hysteria about how fries make you fat. All thats done is give fast food places the excuse to give customers less for their money.
That sounds racist to me!
I'm all for healthier living, but the government has no business involved in this. Let's save taxpayer dollars and allow the market to dictate what and in what quantity restaurants serve.
More nanny state stupidity.
Yes, this is EXACTLY what we need . . . . . another problem solved by GOVERNMENT, instead of personal responsibility!!!
In the brave new world, individuals will not be able to make any personal decisions. Every detail of your daily existence will be prescribed and mandated by law.
ROFL
Yeah, here's our big government at work. This is the first bunch of bureaucrats that should have their positions eliminated.
First tobacco...now food. When will the (insert word here)-nazi's be happy. Oh geez...will beer be next?
"In the fight against obesity,.."
Maybe they should mount a fight against STUPIDITY... starting with themselves.
It sounds like a 'Saturday Night Live' skit.
Will the FDA provide more soap when they decide to ration toilet paper? Socialism is everywhere. Feel's good, don't it?
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