Wednesday, October 29, 2008
News Board of Health Seeks Comments on Menu Labeling
Posted by Carrington Fox on Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 5:05 AM
Diners, restaurateurs and anyone else with an opinion about Metro's proposed menu-labeling regulation have until Nov. 13 to submit written comments, and a public comment session will be held at 4 p.m. Nov. 6. Director of Health Bill Paul will host an hour-long information session Friday, Oct. 31 at the Lentz Health Center, at which he will take questions from restaurant industry members.
In an effort to fight obesity by better informing diners about their nutritional choices, the Metro Public Health Department has proposed that restaurants with more than 10 establishments (including Metro schools) include calorie information on their menus. The board could take action on the proposal at its meeting Dec. 4, at which time it can choose to table, revise, approve or reject the proposal. If it passes, the menu-labeling regulation will go into effect Jan. 31, 2009.
A list of answers to frequently asked questions follows after the jump.
MENU LABELING
Why is the Health Department proposing a menu labeling regulation?
Menu labeling provides a tool for consumers to make informed choices. The average American eats out four times a week. Without nutrition information available, people usually underestimate the caloric content of restaurant foods. This leads to consuming excess calories. Eating more food (calories) than you need (the average adult should consume 2,000 calories each day) leads to weight gain. Just 100 excess calories a day amounts to ten pounds of weight gain in a year.
The rate of obesity in Tennessee has tripled in the past 20 years.
Obesity in Nashville is at epidemic levels, now over half of adults are overweight or obese. A recent Health Department study show more than ½ of the adults in Nashville are either overweight or obese. According to a 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study the increase of overweight young people in the U.S. tripled between 1980 and 2000.
Obesity is one of the leading causes of preventable death because it leads to heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and stroke.
The obesity epidemic has led to an epidemic of diabetes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the direct medical cost of diabetes in the U.S. is $116 billion each year.
Who does this impact?
Any food establishment in Davidson county that is part of a group of 10 or more food establishments operating anywhere in the U.S. with a standardized menu – this includes establishments doing business under the same name (franchise or company owned). This regulation would include Metro Schools.
The proposed regulation does not include "Mom and Pop" food establishments that are not part of a chain. The chains have a standardized menu where a mom and pop establishment might have a different menu each day.
Many of these chains already offer nutritional information online or in printed material available at the restaurant, but customers rarely are aware of this information when they place an order.
What are we asking restaurants to do?
Each restaurant will provide the calorie count of each food and drink item offered for sale prominently on the menu, menu board, or display label. The calorie information will be displayed along with the name of the item and the price.
When would it happen?
The Health Department has proposed that the Board of Health adopt menu labeling requirements that would be enacted January 31, 2009. There would be a 90-day grace period to allow restaurants to update menus.
Comments (9)
Showing 1-9 of 9
Sooo, this means that every greasy meat and three and Q' joint get a free pass?
Swell. Literally.
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Cleveland Pete just forwarded this link, which gives you some idea of the lack of transparency in restaurant calorie counts:
http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/18671/the-worst-appetizers-in-america/
excellent idea
knowledge is a beautiful thing
on a side note - i was at vanderbilt hospital this morning and while we were waiting for our car to be brought to us, a private ambulance pulled up. out came a man, on a stretcher, on oxygen - smoking a cigarette. the attendants were waiting for him to take his final deep drags before he flicked it to the street and only then was he carried in.
old habits die hard. and they take you with them...
Could Metro be any more Orwellian? There is simply no basis in law for them to require this and I will be there @ 4pm on November 6th to let them know. Bill Paul...Get a real job.
Control freaks.
where did you get that picture of me? my wife said she was going to keep those private.
We are so in need of this. In its stages between Ultraviolet Cafe (am I the only one who liked that place?) and Noshville, there was an Alabama brewpub-ish place called the Old Mill or Mill something, whatever. Anyway, beer was pretty blah, but dang, their menu included the nutrition info on every item. It was quite helpful!! I am known to stare at candy bars, reading the info again and again until I finally get to how I will feel after eating them so that I can walk away. I make lunchtime decisions after perusing nutrition info online (when available), and have stepped off the 'oh, it's just a cheeseburger' ledge many times by letting the dull thud of > 30 fat grams soak in, so to speak.
Simply put, it is not Orwellian it is practically Messianic to force this info in front of our eyes. We cannot save ourselves, it seems. We need help, and there is nothing like a slap of reality to make us realize the salad really does sound better after all.
