I'm not so sure.....

I was in Wagayama yesterday, pondering between the miso cod and noodles and the duck noodles with egg, and hadn't even seen the calories (didn't have the right glasses on......). Couldn't make up my mind. And then I suddenly noticed them - the cod was about 650 and the duck as about 1200. So I chose the cod.....

Now it's true, as per emmsie, I'm pretty skinny and fit, and LOVE good food and wine, and don't believe in calories as a basis for food choices....

But I think the info is useful - you don't have to use it, or care, and certain people won't give two hoots. But for many in the middle, it's not a complete waste of time - it's not instead of everything else, there are many other important ways to tackle health issues. But I don't have a problem with it - it's knowledge and up to people how they use it....

And darn, I miss Wagaymama! Not something that has made it over to NZ (there are a few Nandos in the country, and five guys are rumoured to be coming here)

flamingowings wrote:

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I think it could potentially be a negative thing for people who restrict themselves. A friend of mines daughter has just spent time in hospital due to low weight and is now on a modified diet and she chooses, for example, a yoghurt flavour based on how much calories one has against the other (fruit flavour Vs chocolate).
Sometimes it's not so much calories as portion sizes.

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 I think it might actually be a positive thing for those people.

I know several girls/young women who have severe eating problems. They would never in a million years eat anything at a normal restaurant, beyond water, diet coke, and steamed beans. But that's precisely because they need to know exactly what goes in their mouth - it's a question of control. The only things they will eat are things with calories on the side (like your friend's daughter and her yoghurt). So I reckon there's more chance they'll have the steamed prawn starter if it says 90 calories on it - no chance they'll have it if they don't know. It won't fix the problem, of course, but there's certainly an upside to it.

And as to the triple-burger lot, it won't fix their problem either. But there are a very large number in the middle, who may well find it helpful. It also has the benefit of transparency, to force restaurants to be 'honest' - they can't write 'healthy fruit light mousse' and then have 600 calories by it. Either the have to decrease the portion size, or actually make a 'healthy light' mousse and cut the sugar in it. 

christ wrote:

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The people that legislation such as this is targeting are either oblivious or ignorant to it anyway. People that care, care; people that don't don't.

My abiding memory of fast food joints is people having the triple-double-super-max burger with everything on with a "Diet Coke, because I'm watching my weight".

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 I went to a seminar where the clinician was talking about seriously obese patients whod had their jaws wired in an attempt to lose weight. One patient thought if she drank a Diet Coke with her food it would cancel out the calories she had eaten. Another that eating a frozen chocolate gateau had less calories than when it was thawed; but my favourite was the patient who puréed burger and chips and drank it through a straw (yuck!!)

I agree that educating people about nutrition and healthy food choices is a good thing - then they can at least make informed decisions 

christ wrote:

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The people that legislation such as this is targeting are either oblivious or ignorant to it anyway. People that care, care; people that don't don't.

My abiding memory of fast food joints is people having the triple-double-super-max burger with everything on with a "Diet Coke, because I'm watching my weight".

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As someone who quite happily used eat huges portions of burgers and chips, smothered in ketchup and then throw on a slice of lettuce to convince myself it was healthy, I can relate to what you are saying.

I used to work for Pizza express. The item with the most calories was the Salad Nicoise, the main course with the least was the mushroom pizza. I think all the main players in the diet industry have comprehensive lists of calories for menus of all the chain restaurants already. It's all the TA that people get that are an issue and the vast majority of places won't have to do this. Food and nutrition course being reintroduced into schools and a refocus on the message that being fat is not healthy would get better results.