Weight-Loss LEAN Act

[Charlie Golf]

Have you heard about the LEAN Act? It stands for Labeling Education And Nutrition and is a piece of legislature originally written by some Senators from Delaware and Alaska. It has since been reintroduced and has other state Senators jumping on board.

If enacted, it would require restaurants and other establishments with prepared food to disclose nutritional information as well as standardize that info.


If you think it's a good idea, why not give your own Senators and State Reps an email and let them know?




It looks like you can actually send the messages straight from the CRNI website I think by clicking on the GET INVOLVED link. But you may have to give them some other info. I just cut and pasted some stuff that I thought sounded good!

 

[Korrie]

Great post!! thanks!

 

[Carthonn]

This will only hurt family run restaurants. It doesn't take a genius to know that the Tour of Italy is way worse than a Cesar Salad. What a waste of time.

 

[Charlie Golf]

How will a consumer having more information at their fingertips hurt a business?

If someone want's a Big Mac, they're gonna buy a Big Mac. This won't stop them unless they are health conscious and didn't really know to begin with. Of course we all know that you can get nutritional content in most McDonald's via a small flyer and I know some Burger King's where I live have posters near the registers that have all the content of each menu item. I don't see those franchises closing or even hurting for business.

And there will be a tradeoff of sorts too. If someone finds that Big Happy Burger has better nutritional content in their food they may go there instead of Fat Burger (a real name). They are still contributing to the food-service economy and making better health decisions for themselves and their family.

On the other hand, if a restaurant patron wants to make a more sensible choice yet still spend money in the establishment, they should at least be given the information to do so.

And with the ongoing healthcare debate in the US, EVERY preventative measure should be seriously looked at. Stopping the problem before it ever starts is part of the solution.

Sure, the food service lobby will moan and whine that it will cause patrons to stop eating out and everyone knows that is pure BS. And reading more, I see the CRNI actually is a group of restaurant and food-service industry businesses.

The smoking bans haven't stopped people from going out, the calorie counts on store menus in NYC haven't stopped people from eating out. In fact, additional cost aside, the next reason people DON'T eat out is because they don't know what they are really eating.

Lastly, what exactly do the restaurants want to hide? Or do you believe it's simply the cost of putting the information on the menus?

And you may wanna know how many calories, saturated fat, and sodium are in that Caesar you think is so much "healthier!" LOL

 

[Blancita]

I live in NYC and love having the calorie information at restaurants readily available. I would love to have the ingredients too. This way I can make INFORMED DECISIONS about what I am eating. Yeah, lots of people dont care but there are plenty who do care about what is going into their body. And most people would be astounded at the calorie counts at some restaurants, where they would guess high, say 1200, but it will really be even higher, like 2000.

BTW, I would be surprised if this bill makes mom and pop restaurants post this info. In NYC, its only for chain restaurants with 20 or more locations, so surely big outfits like this already have the nutritional info and ingredients at their fingertips so what's the big deal? WHAT INDEED ARE THEY HIDING?!

 

[angelicrock]

Some states already require similar things. I personally see no benefit from this. You can tell what is and is not good for you. I dont think anyone believes McDonalds or Burger King is good for them.