MS Speaks
OTHER => NEWS => Topic started by: agate on May 07, 2018, 04:06:37 pm
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For 15 years the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has been campaigning for requiring restaurants to post calorie figures for their food. At last many US restaurants will now have to include that information, according to a message from Margo Wootan, the CSPI's Vice President for Nutrition:
We don’t get to say this as often as we’d like, but today the Center for Science in the Public Interest is celebrating. Menu labeling, which we‘ve championed for 15 years, goes into full effect today. Calories now will be provided in all chain restaurants and movie theaters and for prepared foods in supermarkets and convenience stores with 20 or more outlets....
We couldn’t have done it without members and supporters ... who sent tens of thousands of emails to state legislators, Congress, and the FDA and donated to CSPI to support our work. We worked with state and local organizations to pass more than 20 menu labeling policies across the country, starting in New York City. In 2010, CSPI brought the restaurant industry to the table to pass a national menu labeling law included in the Affordable Care Act.
In addition to calories on menus, information about sodium, saturated fat, sugars, and other nutrients is available in writing, and menus and menu boards are putting the calorie numbers into context with the statement that “2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice, but calorie needs vary.”
Menu labeling allows people to make informed choices when eating out. ...At Starbucks, a grande Caffè Mocha with whole milk and whipped cream (400 calories) has five times as many calories as a grande nonfat Cappuccino (80 calories). Menu labeling also has spurred restaurants to reduce the calories in their foods. ...
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More on this in the Nutrition Action Newsletter (May 7)--"Calories Have (Finally) Arrived on Restaurant Menus":
https://www.nutritionaction.com/daily/what-to-eat/calories-have-finally-arrived-on-restaurant-menus/