Posted on 09/12/2012 9:35:25 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
McDonald's restaurants across the country will soon get a new menu addition: The number of calories in the chain's burgers and fries.
The world's biggest hamburger chain said Wednesday that it will post calorie information on restaurant and drive-thru menus nationwide starting Monday. The move comes ahead of a regulation that could require major chains to post the information as early as next year.
"We want to voluntarily do this," said Jan Fields, president of McDonald's USA. "We believe it will help educate customers."
In cities such as New York and Philadelphia where posting calorie information is already required, however, Fields notes that the information has not changed what customers choose to order.
"When it's all said and done, the menu mix doesn't change," she said. "But I do think people feel better knowing this information."
The decision to post calorie information follows the Supreme Court's decision this summer to uphold President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, which includes a regulation that would require restaurant chains with more than 20 locations to post calorie information. The timetable for carrying out that requirement has yet to be worked out........
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
I have no problem with this. They have been doing this at Burger King for some time now.
The numbers are meaningless unless you know what a healthy total of daily calories is supposed to be based on the type of work you do. A laborer will need more calories than an office worker sitting behind a desk for eight hours.
A person is healthy or not healthy.
Food (once it is inanimate) is healthful or not healthful.
That’s English.
No, it won't. But advocating the Nanny State will, Comrade.
“Not all Mcdees food is fattening. I like when restaurants list the cal. I can them make a informed decision on what I want to eat or not...just as I look at the labels on packages of food in stores.”
I don’t go to fast food joints to get a healthy meal. If I want a big, grease dripping double bacon cheese burger, I am going to get it no matter how many calories it has. Pro Choice is not just for Abortion.
Hmm, I may market that.
What you really need are the grams of carbohydrates (diabetics and dieters can actually use that information) and possibly the fat content ~ although that needs to be divided up into a number of categories to inform people with specific conditions of what they need to know.
Protein might be useful ~
Frankly I can't think of a single health situation where you'd ever need to know calories.
Then "everyone" doesn't know what they're talking about. Food is not bad or good. It's just food. This good food/bad food dichotomy is used often by the know nothings to inspire the bans that conservatives should abhor.
This emotional and anti-science thinking also perpetuates the nonsensical claim that food can be separated into two categories: good and bad. The reality is that there is no bad food...only bad diets. And this, combined with a serious lack of physical activity in a sedentary country, is why Americans are fat.
McDonald's food is not fattening if you don't eat more of it than you burn. You can get fat from eating "healthy" food if you eat too much of it. Michael Phelps eats 12,000 calories as day when he's in training, and he admits that he loves so called "junk food." I don't think anyone, at least with a brain, would consider Phelps unhealthy.
In response to the stupidity of the "Super Sized" movie that nanny statists cheered, two researchers did their own study on McDonald's food and lost weight by eating nothing but "fattening" items from the McDonald's menu. They ate chocolate shakes and Double Quarter Pounders for an entire month, but unlike the "Super Size" idiot, they got regular exercise and lost weight during the month even though they ate, on average, about 4000 calories a day.
Placing the calorie content of food on a menu won't do a damned thing to reduce the incidence of obesity in this country. If operators want to do it then that's fine. But to compel businesses to do this is nanny statism at its finest.
Awww, geez, that huge drive thru menu is already indecipherable
Surprised by the calories...but not in the way the Food Police want me to be. Big Mac is 550 calories. I was thinking more like 800. So I guess I can get 2 now. Thanks Food Police!
This just goes to show that some people and companies need government to show them a right thing to do. A very sad commentary on not doing what you think is right or perhaps just that some people actually believe government is the answer to all their private choices.
Calories is still a significant factor if you are wanting to lose weight. Not everything can be based upon protein vs carbs vs fats. Not all calories are the same either. To lose weight properly(1-2 lbs max per week) the accepted rule is to eat 500 calories below your maintence level and you need to know your maintence level.
I eat 3300 cal per day when not lifting(cardio only) and 3600 per day on my lifting days and really watch my macros-more good carbs on lifting days for peak energy.
My husband had Celiac. I would order without bread and he never had a problem.
As I said, akin to witchcraft.
I'm very "fit/health" consious conscious, too. And I have a very big problem with it. It costs restaurants thousands and thousands of dollars to have the tests done to come up with these calorie counts.
Now, McDonalds can afford that. But what about Joe's Breakfast Wagon? What do you think it does to his bottom line? Might well put him out of business or -- at the least -- seriously affect his living.
And for what? So people can know that a burger with cheese has a really lot of calories? They didn't know that? You think they're going to change their decision because of it?
No one even counts calories anymore [well, except for the ignoramuses who sign up for Weight-Watchers.]
All of these nanny-state regulations that you "don't have a problem with" actually cost real Americans real money! They benefit mega-businesses at the expense of their small, start-up competitors. Did you ever think about that?
You don't have a problem with nanny politicians forcing businesses to spend money on things we already know and which are none of government's damned business.
I do. If you consider yourself a conservative, you should, perhaps, re-examine your premises. You don't sound much like one to me.
No, it won't. But advocating the Nanny State will, Comrade.
A case in point. Where did I advocate a nanny state?
And, yes, advocating a healthy lifestyle does get ostracized here. Too many Limbaugh listeners think that he has the answers to healthy living.
I much rather make them at home myself though. What I do is toast Thomas's English Muffins while frying three eggs. I fold the cooked eggs into the English Muffin with two slices of swiss cheese and several slices of bacon. Also, I drizzle the English Muffins with 100% olive oil (not butter).
I don't know how many calories that has but multiply by two or three because I can never have just one.
It’s called “junk food” for a reason. Calorie counts are superfluous. Only a numbskull would think this stuff is good for you.
Even the salads with chicken strips are high-calorie. Anyone keeping track of the news would know that, however, so again, calorie counts are superfluous.
“YOU VILL POST ZE CALORIESS ON ZE MENUSS!” thundered Herr Chief Justice Fuhrer Johann Roberts.
Or something like that.
Nanny State PING!
Let them post the calories and I’ll ignore them if I crave something fattening.
What nonsense(and I’ve always been slim).
I have what most of us have——good old fashioned common sense.
.
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