Mike's
post on KFC and transfats reminded me of a discussion over at Halfsigma involving a propose New York City law that would require restaurants to post nutritional content
on their menus.
In short, I think it's a good idea. My chief complaint with the law is that it is not stringent enough.
I don't see why it would be a huge burden on restaurants and it's not aimed at regulating the food, but disclosing to the customer what is in it. It's amazing the differences that can exist on the same plates from one restaurant to the next.
Dominos complained that they have too many variations to keep track of. This may be true, to an extent, and the law should be somewhat flexible when it comes to extra ingredients. Subway right now puts the health content of some of their stuff on napkins. It doesn't include cheese or condiments, so those are listed separately. I don't see why there couldn't be a provision for Dominos to put a pizza topping chart on the back.
I am presently watching my fat and caloric intake very closely. Having actual numbers makes a big difference and I'm starting to lose weight. This may not last, but so far it has been at least very illuminating. It has me eating things I otherwise wouldn't consider and avoiding things I used to eat all the time. If this diet fails, it will not be because I am dissatisfied with what I am eating it will be because I am tried of keeping track and will drift towards the more convenient, less healthy foods. Right now the biggest barrier I have is trying to figure out the health content of restaurants that won't tell me.
This whole strategy would be nigh impossible if it wasn't for government regulation on supermarket items. Laws like these help people help themselves, which is a very good thing.
At the risk of being foolish... complaints even by a place like Domino's are silly.
I can easily see the menu like this:
Pizzas (Plain)
Large $Y X Calories
Medium $Y X Calories
Small $Y X Calories
Personal $Y X Calories
Toppings:
(list of toppings per size here, same way).
Specialty pizzas:
Meat Lover's
Vegetarian
etc
Now, what this really doesn't address isn't what Dominos is really complaining about, but it's the trend by places (especially fast food types) to make the menu as small as possible. If you can fit it all onto a single card? Great. 3-panel foldout instead of four? Great.
Lots less information, but it "gets the job done."
And it has nothing to do with their inability to print a menu, and everything to do with their laziness (and customers' perceived laziness if they don't want to read it) in not wanting to bother printing a menu that needs 4 panels instead of 2.
Comment spam is an ongoing problems that we're trying to address. Previously we required people to create accounts and log in. I am thankful to say that is no longer the case. We're giving Captcha another try and are playing around with a text-based Q&A variant of Captcha. So bear with us as we try to figure out how to best get a handle ont he problem. Please note that any comment on a post more than 30 days old will go into the moderation queue, where I will get to it when I can which could be once a week.
