New York To Put Calories On Menus

IN New York, the city Board of Health is to vote Tuesday for a second time on the requirement for major fast-food chains to print the calorific content of meals on menus.

As noted: “If the measure is approved, any large fast-food chain would have to list calorie counts prominently on their menu boards. Several chains, like McDonald’s and Burger King, have the information available, but don’t list it on the menu boards that customers read before ordering.”

Food is now about numbers. The message “Eat Less Murder Burgers, Fatso!” has been altered to one of food parts and science. The talk is of protein, fats, carbohydrates and sugars. And since no-one knows what they mean, we continue to stuff our faces.

The Times says the fast-food companies have said the calorie counts would “clutter menus and irritate customers who didn’t necessarily want to be confronted with the information”.

In Anorak’s experience it is quite the opposite. When sat at an eatery it is all part of the experience to peruse the menu at one’s leisure.

Given the American addiction to choice in food – I’ll take a skinny Arabica over easy egg with malted toast cut into rhombuses and smeared with a millimetre of Arabian bee honey and twist of sexed Ghanaian kumquat - we encourage the city of New York to go further.
Why not list also the pH formula of the tables and chairs, the kind of wood that made the natural balancing napkins, the chef’s carbon footprint and if the stomach pump uses organic water?

It’s what the free market is all about…

Anorak

Posted: 22nd, January 2008 | In: Anorak In New York, Food & Fat Comments (5) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink