Should fast food restaurants have to provide info?

Chris OConnor

Should fast food restaurants have to provide nutritional information for everything they sell? And how and when should this nutritional information be made available?

Results (total votes = 3):


Buyer beware. No, restaurants shouldn't have to provide it.	0 / 0.0%

Yes, but only when requested by the customer	1 / 33.3%

Yes, the nutritional data should be on the counter	0 / 0.0%

Yes, the nutritional data should be provided with every order	2 / 66.7%

Chris OConnor

Every food product in the grocery store is required to provide a standardized nutritional information label so it doesn't make sense that fast food restaurants are somehow exempt from such requirements. In fact all restaurants, from McDonald's to Pizza Hut and Outback and Subway, should provide the nutritional information for every product ordered independent of whether or not the customer requests to see it. Put it on the receipt and/or the menu. Actually, I'm not sure exactly how the data should be provided and I know that providing it will ultimately cost the customer, but we have a real epidemic of obesity and heart disease and cancer these days.

irishrosem

This is a coincidentally timely topic for me. I just finished Michael Pollan's chapter on his fast food meal in The Omnivore's Dilemma. Actually more than nutritional information as in calorie count, fats, carbs, proteins, etc., I would like to have a full ingredient list. I rarely eat out, haven't eaten "fast food" in ages, but will probably NEVER eat it again, now. (To be honest, Supersize Me, or whatever the name of that documentary was, turned me off to the little fast food I ate a couple years ago.) I love the prepared foods section of Whole Foods for my "eat out" treat of the week, not sure I'll be eating there as often either.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma is totally making me rethink my eating habits. It’s really the “sustainable” issue that I need to look at, the stress on locally grown foods. I just ate a plum. It was delicious. I bought the plum from my local farmers' market. I live in Pennsylvania, the plum came from Chile. I’m no longer really sure what I think about that. Over the next couple weeks, I’ll probably be adding to The Omnivore’s Dilemma thread if anyone who has already read it would like to join me.

Mr. Pessimistic

I just visited a new Organic supermarket in my neighborhood. This after reading Omnivore's Dilema.

Looking at the fruit, it all came from Mexico or elsewhere, not anywhere close to NJ. So I turned and walked out. But what to do...I cannot find anything close by with local items except a local farm, and the selection there is not very good at all.

I would love to find a farm like Salatin's farm, but I am not sure I can take long road trips to get there. I would love to eat better and more responsibly, but there is a limit to the time I have to invest in that unfrotunately.

I am going to start Pollan's "Botany of Desire" shortly. It is on the short-shelf right now!

Mr. P.

I'm not saying it's usual for people to do those things but I(with the permission of God) have raised a dog from the dead and healed many people from all sorts of ailments. - Asana Boditharta (former booktalk troll)

The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.

What is all this shit about Angels? Have you heard this? 3 out of 4 people believe in Angels. Are you F****** STUPID? Has everybody lost their mind? - George Carlin

I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper

irishrosem

Mr. P.: I would love to find a farm like Salatin's farm, but I am not sure I can take long road trips to get there.

And then, of course, you have the gas you would expend to get to those distant markets or farms. I usually walk to the market, in fact I pretty much walk everywhere. But if my local farmers’ market doesn’t carry local produce during the winter months what am I to do? Do I use a car to drive, expending that much more gas, to where there is “local” produce? Is that logical, and more environmentally sensitive?

To be honest, I wouldn’t mind limiting my choice selection. Did I really need that plum today? I would, however, like some fruit each day. But, being totally ignorant about farming, I don’t even know what kind of fruit I could eat in February, besides apples I guess. (I do eat a ton of apples this time of year. Even they come from all over the place though.) What kind of vegetables would be available in the winter? Is it bad that I can get oranges and grapefruit from Florida? Bananas? And I have no idea where the asparagus I ate last night came from. Seriously, totally rethinking everything about my diet.

On top of all that, I’m considering “sustainability” while also reading Thomas Friedman’s The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization. As far as I can see, sustainability and globalization are not compatible concepts. My brain hurts…

Sorry to derail your topic, Chris. I swear I’ll put all my other thoughts on this in The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Chris OConnor

Rose, this seems like as good of a place as any to discuss these things. If you add your comments in The Omnivore's Dilemma they'll not be read by many people. This is a flaw in our forum design that I've yet to figure out how to overcome.

irishrosem

Well if you don't mind then, Chris. As for the "flaw" in the forum design. When I first found booktalk I read through all those old book selection threads. It was a good way to learn the types of people that were posting here, and the things you were talking about. I still go back to use them, as in the instant case with The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Back to the topic though. McDonald’s is apparently mad because Prince Charles said their food is unhealthy. I just guffawed at this statement at the end of the article though: “The hamburger chain added that it has ‘made great progress in support of sustainable agriculture.’” I mean, they can't be serious. Even before reading this book, I would have thought it an absurd statement.

Chris OConnor

I guess I just didn't want your current comments to get lost down there. Very few people ever read the older book forums. You're right about the value of them, so handle it however you like. Maybe make a link in this thread and then put the new posts down there. ::171

irishrosem

I ate chickenier chicken!

I intend to add a bit to The Omnivore's Dilemma if anyone wants to join me down there. I'm particularly curious to know if anyone has changed their food choices, even slightly, since reading the book.


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