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The new health care reform bill requires restaurants to post information about the number of calories on foods on their menus, and to state that "the average person consumes 2,000 calories a day."

Research has shown that if this statement is on the menu along with calorie counts, people tend to eat less.

The new law will apply only to restaurants that have more than 20 locations.

Labels: legislation, calories

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Posting calorie counts on restaurant menus may motivate people to eat less , according to a new study from the Rudd Center for Food Policy at Yale University.

• Researchers divided 300 people into three groups.
  
• Group 1 had menus with the calories listed for the entrees only.
  
• Group 2 had calories listed for entrees, as well as the notice that the recommended calorie intake for the average adult is 2000 calories a day.
  
• Group 3 used menus that had no calorie references on them.
• The group that had the 2000 calorie reference and the calorie labels ate about 250 calories less at dinner than the other groups. (That group ate 1380 calories at dinner as opposed to 1630 for the other groups.)
  

Author Christina Roberto said that calorie savings like this would add up over time and could favorably affect people's weights.

The study appeared in the American Journal of Public Health.

Labels: calories, menus

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Several chain restaurants in the United States are supporting new federal laws that will require them to put calorie counts next to items on their menus. The laws will also allow restaurant patrons to ask for information about sugar, salt, cholesterol, and other nutrition information

Several states and cities already have similar laws.

The federal laws would apply only to chain restaurants with 20 or more locations. The National Restaurant Association (which includes a number of chains, including Dunkin Donuts, Red Lobster and Olive Garden), the American Diabetes Association, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest support the new laws.

The new legislation was proposed by U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski, Tom Harkin, and Tom Carper. "America is facing an obesity epidemic which must be addressed at the national level," Sen. Murkowski said.

Labels: nutrition, legislation, calories, restaurants

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A bill has been introduced in the Hawaii State Legislature that would require food chains to put nutritional information on their menus.

"The Hawaii legislation (House Bill 1526 HD1) is aimed at encouraging healthy food choices to combat increasing obesity and an increased risk of high blood pressure and hypertension, which can lead to cardiovascular disease."

The law would require all franchise food establishments with ten or more restaurants to include accurate nutritional information on all their menus, and make this information available to the public upon request. Source: Star-Bulletin (Hawaii)

Labels: nutrition, calories, restaurants

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California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into law legislation that requires restaurants to include calorie information in their menus.

Many restaurant-goers said they liked the idea. "I think it would be a good thing," said restaurant patron Cory Becky. "That way we actually understand how much we're putting into our bodies, especially [for parents] with little kids."

The law, which will go into effect in 2011, will apply to any restaurant chain that has 20 or more establishments in California. Source: WCSH6 NBC (Portland, ME)

Labels: nutrition, calories, restaurants

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As the problem of childhood obesity becomes increasingly serious, more parents are reading labels to choose the right foods for their kids. Now, a team from Nationwide Children's Hospital has developed a website that calculates a food's "health".

"Keeping track of all that information can be confusing, which is why http://www.snackwise.org was designed to do it for you. Dr. Robert Murray, Director of the Center for Health Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children's Hospital says it's information some parents have gone too long without."

A parent who wants to test snacks or other foods simply needs to go to the website and enter some information from the food's label. The website then puts the food in one of three categories: red - choose rarely, yellow - choose occasionally, and green - the best choice." Read more at MediLexicon.com.

Labels: calories, snacks, tools

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