60 minutes aired a lengthy report last night on the menu labeling controversy, and all the usual suspects were in attendance.
Regular readers will be familiar with all the twists and turns in the report, but its worth watching if only to see Wendy’s try to convince Lesley Stahl that putting calories on menu boards is impossible and that the chain isn’t worried about sales dropping.
Also included in the report is an interview with Brian Wansink, a nutrition and marketing professor at Cornell University and author of Mindless Eating. If you’re at all interested in the ways that food marketing manipulates you, you should check out Brian’s research at Cornell’s food and brand lab. One of the best parts of the report is the look on one customer’s face when Wansink tells him the Subway combo he thought had 300 calories really has 1300.
Wansink then asked another consumer who had chosen the same combo:
“Well, let’s say for instance that we would have had the calories listed on the menu when you ordered something like that. Would that influence what you ordered?” Wansink asked a man.“Absolutely. I don’t think I would have gotten it. I mean, 1,350 calories for a Subway,” the man replied.
Expert: Many Underestimate Calories [60 Minutes]
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Just an anecdote here to add to all the hypotheticals we’re flinging around:
I’m a fan of Chipotle. I used to have no idea how many calories were in my favorite burrito, but I thought it must be pretty healthy because all the ingredients were fresh. It was a classier burrito, so how bad could it be? When I did the research (it took some digging on the Internet) and found out that my favorite order had 1300 calories in it, I (a) realized why I had such a hard time finishing a burrito there, (b) stopped going there so often, and (c) switched to a healthier option when I did go. Not every consumer has the option of researching every meal ahead of time on the Internet. Healthy eating shouldn’t be a specialized, time-consuming hobby.
And if labeling everything makes McD’s go out of business, so what? Why should I care about McD’s when it’s never cared about me or my health? They’re in the business of selling fried protein pucks with as many add-ons as possible; I’m in the business of looking out for my own health and well-being. If they close, their laid-off workers can just go to work at the salmon burger-and-lentil-soup place that will spring up down the road to replace McD’s. Or if McD’s is smart they will come out with their own salmon burgers and lentil soups, and not have to close at all. And if consumers don’t care about calories and still demand Monster Thickburgers or whatever with enough calories to feed an Ethiopian village for a day, I’m confident that they will still be available.
This would be cake for chain restaurants, which already know the calorie and nutrient contents of all their food. Small restaurants that don’t want to have to test all their food can provide terminals with access to the USDA food database, which can be beefed up a bit to cover common restaurant dishes and their components. It’s the same research we’d be doing online, only the restaurant takes some responsibility for providing the information so it’s easier to make good choices. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
@csdiego:
Healthy eating shouldn’t be a specialized, time-consuming hobby.
And herein lies part of the problem. Eating healthy actually does take some effort. Sorry, it just does.
(Lest I be misunderstood I’m not really opposed to calorie counts on menus, I just think it really needs to apply universally across restaurants in some fashion and even then will have little or noticeable effect. Most people eat to sate, not to reach their predetermined calorie total for the day.)
@csdiego: you pretty much cover one of my biggest issues – there’s a lot of, blah, blah, of course that cheeseburger is bad for you going on here, but what about the supposedly-healthy options that turn out not to be so? One person mentioned McDonald’s salads – salads are a big one. You’d be better off getting a lot of the higher-protein, seemingly worse-for-you in a lot of cases.
As for saying don’t eat fast food, that’s fine (I don’t) – but some people have trouble avoiding it. They have a commute, they can’t seem to keep on top of making something and taking it with them (and, if you’re thinking, I can do it, so can they, give yourself a medal), and options suck. I was in a nothing-but-strip malls part of a southern state recently, and talking to my recently-transferred-there boyfriend about how stunning it is that you can find pockets that just don’t seem to have anything but fast food – I didn’t even see that many grocery stores. A lot of people have jobs that don’t allow them to eat very frequently, either, so by the time they get off work, it’s just about getting food, now. (God knows I’ve resorted to fast food for that reason. I’m thin, but I have to eat something about every two hours. If I didn’t live extremely close to where I work, I might resort more often to crappy options.)
I don’t like a “nanny state,” either, but give me a fucking break – slapping a few numbers (not for every conceivable combination – we can still force people to do their own math) on a menu is still in the realm of information. The posters most fast food restaurants are supposed to have, if they’re there, have very tiny print, and I’ve seen many that were set halfway behind the counter – so you can lean over the counter and squint. I’ve *never* seen a fast food place in New York that had the nutrition pamphlets stocked. As for the internet, not everybody has access, and not everybody has the foresight to plan ahead. I would rather a culture where the information were available at the moment of decision – obsession with food creates other problems, and it’s unnecessary and a bit gross to expect people to plan ahead, always. (I do, but I’m on medication to treat that problem.)
And, finally, to anyone who said mayonnaise is evil – I hope a contingent of Belgians and Japanese (Kewpie, my god, Kewpie) conspire to slap you. Mayonnaise, in proper amounts and properly made, is one of the best things to happen to food. (Most of what they hand out in fast food places isn’t worth it, though – it is the margarine to mayonnaise’s butter.)
The guy in the picture estimated a foot-long sub, chips, and a juice to be 300 calories! He almost had a heart attack when he found out how much it really was too.
Just to let you guys know, I’ve been in one of Brian Wansink’s classes and he’s a jerk.
He’s a good professor though.
@burgundyyears: Right now, yeah, healthy eating does take effort, and a gold medal to you if you do it all the time. I watch what I eat, too. I cook most of what I eat myself, take the time to pack a lunch, I read labels in the grocery store, all that.
But some people just don’t have that kind of time. They’ve got kids, they’re working multiple jobs with crazy schedules, maybe they’ve got other hobbies, don’t know how to cook, etc. If we say, well, eating right is hard work and if those people don’t feel like doing it, then tough noogies, we’re throwing up our hands and saying it’s OK to live in an obese society with all the health problems we have because God forbid we require restaurant owners, fast food or otherwise, to take a tiny bit of responsibility for the product they are selling us. All that would mean is just telling us what they already know about their food (and in the case of the small restaurant owners, I proposed that they provide some kind of access to the USDA’s food database, or maybe the USDA could help them with their nutrition data in some other way). I just don’t think that’s so harsh. It’s more like leveling the playing field just a little.
Given that the whole availability of nutritional info is a complete joke, without any enforcement, punishment, or incentive for restaurants to obey the law, I’m inclined to see on-menu caloric info as a superior implementation of existing precedent.
@csdiego: God forbid we require restaurant owners, fast food or otherwise, to take a tiny bit of responsibility for the product they are selling us.
They do take responsibility for their food. When was the last time you got botulism from your Enchirtacoito Supreme?
And let’s say consumers do get provided with all the nutritional data you desire (not just caloric data, even, again, which I’m not opposed to.) What happens when little benefit is detected and surprise, surprise, people continue eat to sate when they arrive hungry and in a hurry? Wholesale control and regulation of what the restaurant sells is the natural next step. And all in the name of public health, which apparently legitimizes just about any action government might take to some people.
But some people just don’t have that kind of time. They’ve got kids, they’re working multiple jobs with crazy schedules, maybe they’ve got other hobbies, don’t know how to cook, etc. If we say, well, eating right is hard work and if those people don’t feel like doing it, then tough noogies, we’re throwing up our hands and saying it’s OK to live in an obese society with all the health problems we have because God forbid we require restaurant owners, fast food or otherwise, to take a tiny bit of responsibility for the product they are selling us.
It isn’t their responsibility for what goes in your body. It is yours. To say “some people are too busy” is such a lame excuse. Figure it out. Take responsibility for yourself. To say we need government intervention because people are too busy to worry for themselves is ridiculous and a classic example of why the government acts like your nanny.
FYI, alot of people speed and get in car wrecks. Should we have car companies forced to put speed regulators in all cars so they don’t go above 75 mph. After all if we don’t, we are “throwing up our hands and saying it’s OK to live in an dangerous society with all the insurance problems we have because God forbid we require car manufacturers to take a tiny bit of responsibility for the product they are selling us.” See how damn ridiculous that sounds?
How long until the gov’t says 30 grams of fat in a Quarter Pounder? Well that is too many so you have to stop selling those.
If you want to eat healthy all the time, don’t eat out. As one chef said on FoodTV’s “Next Iron Chef,” said when he put a half a stick a butter in a dish, “we are their cooks, not their doctors.”
@louisb3: IAWTC
@csdiego:
I agree with you whole-heartedly. Why are people so worried about McDonalds restaurants, and whether they make it or not? I’d rather see a good place to eat stay in business and make it than a place that misses the mark for good eating altogether.
Of course mayo is evil. Evil is always delicious! So are cigarettes, full fat sour cream and small dogs!
But we’d prefer that this labelling go ahead – free will might mean you can choose your fate but somehow it tastes so much better when you know exactly how much grease you’re sucking back.
Besides, some of you are having trouble fitting through the gate down here and prybars don’t have quite the same cachet as pitchforks.
@bnb614: Sorry, I don’t buy the slippery-slope argument. We’re talking about the government requiring restaurants to share information with us, not going in and micromanaging recipes.
Teehee Professor Wansink is my advisor at school. I left my copy of Mindless Eating on the kitchen table at home and my dad, presumably after flipping through it, called me the other day to say “I think your advisor guy was on TV again!!!” Oh, the joys.
I’m actually one of those nuts that gets a burger craving and checks the online nutrition information and bases where/what to eat on how I’ve eaten that day if I’m a bit indecisive. It seems to work… somehow after 3 years in the United States I haven’t gained weight. It’s a little effort, maybe 2 minutes, and it does help. Doesn’t even need obsessiveness.