Any restaurant chain with more than twenty stores might be required to show the calories counts on their menu boards. Of course the restaurant industry opposes this. But isn’t it time for people to own up and know what they are eating?
Instead of asking for the a “number 1” (Big Mac), people could now say, “I’ll have a 540, please.”
Thanks to Tom for emailing this article to me.
just kind of like those Speed Limit signs that tell you how fast you are going cause people to actually slow down, I think visible calorie counts on fast food will do the same thing.
Astro, that reminds me of my first job out of college. I had to walk one mile from the Glen Ellyn train station to work on St. Charles Road. Part of that daily journey was downhill. At the bottom of the hill on a side street, they put one of those speed meters for about a week. During that week, i would run down the hill as fast as I could to see if the speed meter would register my speed. The first couple days it didn’t register. But then eventually I got on there. I think it was 14mph. Or something.
i was disappointed when mcd’s stopped carrying “super size” fries. now i have to order 2 larges.
sarah. no way. are you serious? I think you are joking.
haha, yeah I am kinda joking. in college i did sometimes get a supersize fry and call that a meal though… i think anyone who’s going to mcdonald’s should know they are probably not doing the healthiest thing. so i don’t see the need to put up the calories.
well Sarah, I think its an out of sight out of mind thing… if you dont SEE the calories, its like you can “get away with it” i think this is a good thing, especially in inner city “food deserts” where fast food is the only thing around.
perhaps, but IMO it’ll be as effective as surgeon general’s warnings on tobacco. if it’s going to be on the menu at fast food places then the same should be done on other restaurants’ menus. mcdonald’s isn’t the only perpetrator. also, plain calorie count might not even be the worst part – what about putting the fat and sodium up there too.
Can we add cholesterol to the menu boards too please? Actually, keep it to just calories. This needs to be simple. Yes. More info is good for people to know. But the delivery method of a menu board just won’t have the space for all those stats. I mean, i guess they COULD. But it would be kinda overwhelming at first. It’s good they are keeping it to restaurants that have menuboards with more than 20 locations. In the future they can expand it out further. Right now people/restaurants are freaking about just one simple addition. Things like this need time to build up. I would be happy to have just this for now.
I wonder what the restrictions will be in terms of point size for the font. It drives me crazy when a restaurant (like KFC) shows only the value meal prices and not the prices of the individual components. I don’t need all the junk that comes along with a value me.