Graehm Gray: Restaurant Nutritional Labeling Laws
I was eating at a favorite restaurant with my family and another family and I started a discussion about the proposed regulations requiring restaurants to show all of the nutritional information on their menus. I asked the kids (girls ages 11-13) first what that would mean for them. Initially I thought that I would hear that they really wouldn’t look at that information. I was surprised at the answers. I listened as they told me very matter of fact, that they would read it and in fact would change their choices if they saw too much fat, sugar or salt. However I am not so sure when it comes to desserts if the nutrition facts would play any part in their decision making. Then I moved on to the adults. So I asked-would it matter to you? The answer I heard was-I would definitely read the information and tell my kids to choose something healthy. So I said-what about your choice. The responses were polarized-the moms said they would definitely choose a healthy item. The dad said-he would try to pick a healthier item but if not he would try to exercise more the next day if he didn’t. An interesting social experiment.
You see my friends, it is inevitable that we will be getting barraged with more nutritional information-at the stores, on television, on the web and at now at our restaurants. The knowledge pendulum has swung to favor more is better. Is it truly better for us to know more?
Let’s take a historical journey for a moment. We have had nutritional labeling since 1990 (see my article: The Meal Act for further reference) and the rates of childhood obesity have been rising steadily. We have known about dietary recommendations since 1894 when the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued recommendations. Then in 1916-the first food guide was issued called “Food For Young Children” by Caroline Hunt. Then the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA) of calories, vitamins and nutrients was issued in 1941-when a committee was developed to look at nutrition and its relationship to national defense. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) then revised the RDA’s for each nutrient. Since 1980- the USDA has released an annual food choice guide. Now up to the present, the Food and Nutrition Board, now part of the Institute of Medicine (IOM-part of the United States National Academy of Sciences), took the RDA’s and revised them to form the Dietary Referenced Intake (DRI)-to address the issues of safety, quality and adequacy of the food supply and to establish principles and guidelines of adequate dietary intake. In addition, we have had the release of the USDA Food Pyramid (Mypyramid) in 1992-detailing the various food groups and portions. So, as you can see, we have had lots of information at our fingertips. Now, we will have more face time with nutritional information. The experiment has been tried in New York. Has it influenced the purchasing and consuming behaviors?
One of the best research articles I have read on the subject of the effects of nutrition labels, is in the Academy of Marketing Science Review: Volume 2006, no.9: Consumers’ Use of Nutrition Labels: A Review Of Research Studies And Issues, by authors Andreas C. Drichoutis and Panagiotis Lazardis of the Agricultural University of Athens and Rodolfo M. Nayga, Jr. of Texas A & M University (http://www.amsreview.org/articles/drichoutis09-2006.pdf). The conclusions and opinions of the authors after reviewing countess studies on nutritional labeling and the effects on populations were the following:
“It appears from the analysis that mandating nutritional labels on processed foods may help consumers improve their food or dietary choices. …the effect of information is positive on several beneficial nutrient components (e.g. fiber) and negative on harmful components such as fat, cholesterol etc…. The reason why obesity rates in US are still rising, even though the NLEA (Nutrition Labeling and Education Act) went into effect more than 10 years ago, may as well be the significant increase of the Food Away From Home (FAFH) market and of the proportion of people eating away from home, substituting in-home consumption….Many consumers dine out not only to satisfy hunger, but also for the atmosphere and for other social reasons beyond nutritional considerations. Consumers may also regard eating out as an opportunity to eat more and restaurants are judged negatively if they serve too small portions. Furthermore, requiring restaurants to provide nutritional information for their menus will incur costs similar to the costs incurred with packaged food products.
So there it is in a nutshell. More information leads to more opportunity to choose healthier items, for you and your children. But my friends, the choice comes with a price-higher costs which will be passed on to the consumer. Is it worth it? I would say a resounding yes! It’s our health and the health of our children that is at stake. If you are not making healthy choices for yourself, and I don’t know why you wouldn’t, do it for your children. Remember, intake of unhealthy foods in children, foods that are loaded with lots of calories, with lots of bad fats and sugar are showing up as medical problems such as diabetes, arthritis and heart disease in our children at earlier ages.
Bottom line- we should welcome the mandate for restaurant nutritional labeling laws. We can read the nutritional information on items we buy at the supermarket and then make our informed choices-why shouldn’t we have that opportunity when we go out for a meal? It’s just one more step in our education process-informed decision making. But as parents, it’s really up to us to educate our children on what that information means. Information by itself is not as impactful as that which is compassionately taught to us by people that care about us. And of course- we should all lead by example. What we do is imprinted on our children. Let’s all try to eat healthy and exercise-and make a statement to our kids that by doing so, it’s the right thing to do!
The following web sites and articles were used in the writing of this article: Please check them out! http://www.amsreview.org/articles/drichoutis09-2006.pdf
http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/health_information/Dietary_Reference_Intakes.aspx
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d101:HR03562:@@@D&summ2=3&%7CTOM:/bss/d101query.html%7C
http://www.iom.edu/About-IOM/Leadership-Staff/Boards/Food-and-Nutrition-Board.aspx
http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/Inspections/InspectionGuides/ucm074948.htm
To learn more about reading a food label-please visit : Meet The Food Labels, in The Nerdel News:http://www.nerdel.com/food_nutrition/food_labels.html
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