Post by MattCollister on Apr 29, 2008 12:29:21 GMT -5
NYC is battling through getting a law implemented that requires restaurants to post the calorie counts of their menu items.
NYT article on it:
April 22, 2008
At Fast-Food Outlets: Premature Sticker Shock for the Weight Conscious
By JAMES BARRON
David Pearl was polishing off a crossword puzzle while sitting in the Starbucks at 17th Street and Union Square on Monday — the things elementary school teachers do to indulge themselves on a day off. The crumbs of the 460-calorie banana nut cake he had already polished off were still on the table.
He knew the banana nut cake was an indulgence. Or, to put it more precisely, he knew exactly how much of an indulgence it was because across the store, in the brightly lighted case from which a Starbucks barista had plucked it, was a little card with the calorie count. All three digits.
“It didn’t stop me,” he said. “I mean, I kind of figured it had a lot of calories anyway.”
So it went at some coffee shops and fast-food restaurants on Monday as the city awoke to what amounted to an accidental pilot program to post calorie counts.
It was accidental because city regulations requiring calorie counts to be posted in more than 2,000 restaurants — regulations that had been scheduled to take effect on Monday — did not. A federal judge ordered them delayed until at least Saturday amid more legal maneuvers by a restaurant association that wants them thrown out altogether.
But some of the restaurant chains that would be covered by the regulations, if they took effect, did not wait for the court case to be decided — they posted the calorie counts. And word of the judge’s delay apparently did not reach some television and radio stations. City officials said they went on the air telling viewers struggling with that oh-how-I-hate-to-get-up-in-the-morning feeling — on a Monday, no less — that the rules had taken effect.
All this made for bleary-eyed double takes and confusion at places like Starbucks, which posted the calorie counts last week, expecting the regulations to take effect. But, truth be told, the Monday-morning confusion had more to do with how many calories are in the sweets that people order every morning than with whether the city’s regulations had survived the latest legal challenge.
“Wow, the blueberry scone is 480 calories,” said Helena Hungar, a customer at a Starbucks on Columbus Avenue at 73rd Street. “It makes me not buy, for sure.”
For the record, the raspberry scone next to the blueberry one was only 470 calories. Ms. Hungar was still not tempted.
The regulations are being challenged by the New York State Restaurant Association. It lost a round in its fight against the city’s health department last week, when Judge Richard J. Holwell of United States District Court in Manhattan rejected the group’s claims. Instead he issued a 27-page opinion that agreed with one of the city’s main arguments for posting calorie counts — that doing so would help reduce obesity.
The association is filing an appeal. But without waiting for the case to be decided, chains like Starbucks posted the calorie counts on their menu boards. The Subway fast-food chain prints calorie counts on napkins and cups and posts them on counters and menu boards. Other chains, including Quiznos, Chipotle and Jamba Juice, also put the numbers in plain sight.
“Good for them,” said Chuck Hunt, a spokesman for the restaurant association. “That’s just fine. We don’t object to the information being provided. We’d like to work out a way for restaurants to provide this information in a manner that’s most appropriate for their customers. These aren’t military secrets here, and restaurants are happy to provide the information. The disagreement is about how it should be done.” If the city wins the case, the rules will apply to fewer than 10 percent of the city’s 23,000 restaurants — only those run by chains with more than 15 outlets nationwide.
Judge Holwell, who ruled in favor of the regulations on Wednesday, issued a second opinion on Friday after the restaurant association asked for a delay in the start of the rules while it pursued its appeal. He said the association had not demonstrated a “substantial possibility” of winning the appeal. He also said that the city “has a strong public interest in enforcing a regulatory scheme to address serious health issues.”
But he delayed the start of the regulations until at least Saturday and told the city not to impose fines before June 7 at the earliest.
In chain restaurants that had already posted the tallies, the calorie counts got the attention of customers like Jeannie Soto, an academic coordinator for the neurology department at Beth Israel Medical Center who was at the Starbucks at 17th Street and Union Square.
“I’m surprised, especially about the Iced Lemon Loaf,” she said, referring to something that looked like a slice of lemon pound cake with frosting. “It’s 500 calories. That’s like a Big Mac. It’s like a meal.”
Diana Perez, a home health care worker, wanted a meal at the Chipotle restaurant at Broadway and 18th Street. But she ordered a salad because she is trying to lose weight.
“I do appreciate that they are posting the calories,” she said. “They are making you aware of what you’re eating. You know what’s fattening and what’s not.” She said she has a dream of opening a gym in her neighborhood near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx — a gym with day-care facilities and a restaurant that would serve inexpensive, healthy food.
“There’s nothing like that now, not where we live,” she said. “All I see is fast food, everywhere I go.”
Not everyone was calorie-conscious. “I was not concerned about calories when I was 22 — why should I be concerned now?” said Howard J. Moll, 83, a tourist guide sitting in the Subway restaurant at 47th Street and Eighth Avenue.
Bruno Mastropasqui, an investor who was buying a five-calorie cup of regular coffee at the Starbucks on Columbus Avenue, said that posting the calorie counts would not be good for business. He added, however, “They put warnings on cigarettes, and people still smoke.”
And Ralph Arend, a 22-year-old video journalist at Friction.tv, an online debate forum, took issue with the premise of listing calories where customers could not miss them.
“The posting of the calories is just a craze to make us feel better,” Mr. Arend said as he ate a Chipotle burrito that with the extras, he estimated had at least 1,000 calories.
He dipped a nacho into the burrito. “I firmly believe that if you go out to eat, it’s fair game to serve you fattening food,” he said. “If you’re really concerned, you can cook for yourself.”
Calories: Just Part of the Picture
The city health department’s push for rules requiring some restaurants to post calorie counts — and the New York State Restaurant Association’s court fight against those rules — raises a question: How many calories should an average person eat on an average day?
“Every single person has different caloric needs,” said Rebecca Solomon, the nutrition coordinator of the Program for Surgical Weight Loss at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “Just because you know the Rice Krispie treat is 430 calories doesn’t mean you have an understanding of how that fits into your caloric requirements.”
She estimated that an “average-size person”— someone who weighs about 150 pounds — would need 1,700 to about 2,050 calories for “weight maintenance.” That would mean the person would neither gain nor lose weight. A more detailed analysis would take into account other factors, including whether the person exercised.
She said that calories alone “don’t tell you about nutritional content.” But the basic calculations are revealing.
“Knowing that your 300-calorie frappuccino, and that’s probably on the low end of frappuccino expenditure, and your Rice Krispie treat could be close to half of the calories you need,” she said, “no wonder we’re in an obesity crisis.”
Umar Cheema and Sharon Otterman contributed reporting.
***
The Freakonomics guys are tracking this too. I bet we'll see some interesting studies come out of this.
freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/a-great-opportunity-for-obesity-researchers/#more-2528
NYT article on it:
April 22, 2008
At Fast-Food Outlets: Premature Sticker Shock for the Weight Conscious
By JAMES BARRON
David Pearl was polishing off a crossword puzzle while sitting in the Starbucks at 17th Street and Union Square on Monday — the things elementary school teachers do to indulge themselves on a day off. The crumbs of the 460-calorie banana nut cake he had already polished off were still on the table.
He knew the banana nut cake was an indulgence. Or, to put it more precisely, he knew exactly how much of an indulgence it was because across the store, in the brightly lighted case from which a Starbucks barista had plucked it, was a little card with the calorie count. All three digits.
“It didn’t stop me,” he said. “I mean, I kind of figured it had a lot of calories anyway.”
So it went at some coffee shops and fast-food restaurants on Monday as the city awoke to what amounted to an accidental pilot program to post calorie counts.
It was accidental because city regulations requiring calorie counts to be posted in more than 2,000 restaurants — regulations that had been scheduled to take effect on Monday — did not. A federal judge ordered them delayed until at least Saturday amid more legal maneuvers by a restaurant association that wants them thrown out altogether.
But some of the restaurant chains that would be covered by the regulations, if they took effect, did not wait for the court case to be decided — they posted the calorie counts. And word of the judge’s delay apparently did not reach some television and radio stations. City officials said they went on the air telling viewers struggling with that oh-how-I-hate-to-get-up-in-the-morning feeling — on a Monday, no less — that the rules had taken effect.
All this made for bleary-eyed double takes and confusion at places like Starbucks, which posted the calorie counts last week, expecting the regulations to take effect. But, truth be told, the Monday-morning confusion had more to do with how many calories are in the sweets that people order every morning than with whether the city’s regulations had survived the latest legal challenge.
“Wow, the blueberry scone is 480 calories,” said Helena Hungar, a customer at a Starbucks on Columbus Avenue at 73rd Street. “It makes me not buy, for sure.”
For the record, the raspberry scone next to the blueberry one was only 470 calories. Ms. Hungar was still not tempted.
The regulations are being challenged by the New York State Restaurant Association. It lost a round in its fight against the city’s health department last week, when Judge Richard J. Holwell of United States District Court in Manhattan rejected the group’s claims. Instead he issued a 27-page opinion that agreed with one of the city’s main arguments for posting calorie counts — that doing so would help reduce obesity.
The association is filing an appeal. But without waiting for the case to be decided, chains like Starbucks posted the calorie counts on their menu boards. The Subway fast-food chain prints calorie counts on napkins and cups and posts them on counters and menu boards. Other chains, including Quiznos, Chipotle and Jamba Juice, also put the numbers in plain sight.
“Good for them,” said Chuck Hunt, a spokesman for the restaurant association. “That’s just fine. We don’t object to the information being provided. We’d like to work out a way for restaurants to provide this information in a manner that’s most appropriate for their customers. These aren’t military secrets here, and restaurants are happy to provide the information. The disagreement is about how it should be done.” If the city wins the case, the rules will apply to fewer than 10 percent of the city’s 23,000 restaurants — only those run by chains with more than 15 outlets nationwide.
Judge Holwell, who ruled in favor of the regulations on Wednesday, issued a second opinion on Friday after the restaurant association asked for a delay in the start of the rules while it pursued its appeal. He said the association had not demonstrated a “substantial possibility” of winning the appeal. He also said that the city “has a strong public interest in enforcing a regulatory scheme to address serious health issues.”
But he delayed the start of the regulations until at least Saturday and told the city not to impose fines before June 7 at the earliest.
In chain restaurants that had already posted the tallies, the calorie counts got the attention of customers like Jeannie Soto, an academic coordinator for the neurology department at Beth Israel Medical Center who was at the Starbucks at 17th Street and Union Square.
“I’m surprised, especially about the Iced Lemon Loaf,” she said, referring to something that looked like a slice of lemon pound cake with frosting. “It’s 500 calories. That’s like a Big Mac. It’s like a meal.”
Diana Perez, a home health care worker, wanted a meal at the Chipotle restaurant at Broadway and 18th Street. But she ordered a salad because she is trying to lose weight.
“I do appreciate that they are posting the calories,” she said. “They are making you aware of what you’re eating. You know what’s fattening and what’s not.” She said she has a dream of opening a gym in her neighborhood near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx — a gym with day-care facilities and a restaurant that would serve inexpensive, healthy food.
“There’s nothing like that now, not where we live,” she said. “All I see is fast food, everywhere I go.”
Not everyone was calorie-conscious. “I was not concerned about calories when I was 22 — why should I be concerned now?” said Howard J. Moll, 83, a tourist guide sitting in the Subway restaurant at 47th Street and Eighth Avenue.
Bruno Mastropasqui, an investor who was buying a five-calorie cup of regular coffee at the Starbucks on Columbus Avenue, said that posting the calorie counts would not be good for business. He added, however, “They put warnings on cigarettes, and people still smoke.”
And Ralph Arend, a 22-year-old video journalist at Friction.tv, an online debate forum, took issue with the premise of listing calories where customers could not miss them.
“The posting of the calories is just a craze to make us feel better,” Mr. Arend said as he ate a Chipotle burrito that with the extras, he estimated had at least 1,000 calories.
He dipped a nacho into the burrito. “I firmly believe that if you go out to eat, it’s fair game to serve you fattening food,” he said. “If you’re really concerned, you can cook for yourself.”
Calories: Just Part of the Picture
The city health department’s push for rules requiring some restaurants to post calorie counts — and the New York State Restaurant Association’s court fight against those rules — raises a question: How many calories should an average person eat on an average day?
“Every single person has different caloric needs,” said Rebecca Solomon, the nutrition coordinator of the Program for Surgical Weight Loss at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “Just because you know the Rice Krispie treat is 430 calories doesn’t mean you have an understanding of how that fits into your caloric requirements.”
She estimated that an “average-size person”— someone who weighs about 150 pounds — would need 1,700 to about 2,050 calories for “weight maintenance.” That would mean the person would neither gain nor lose weight. A more detailed analysis would take into account other factors, including whether the person exercised.
She said that calories alone “don’t tell you about nutritional content.” But the basic calculations are revealing.
“Knowing that your 300-calorie frappuccino, and that’s probably on the low end of frappuccino expenditure, and your Rice Krispie treat could be close to half of the calories you need,” she said, “no wonder we’re in an obesity crisis.”
Umar Cheema and Sharon Otterman contributed reporting.
***
The Freakonomics guys are tracking this too. I bet we'll see some interesting studies come out of this.
freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/a-great-opportunity-for-obesity-researchers/#more-2528
