Freaky Fast Food Facts

There’s a big fight going on now between the restaurant industry and public health officials about whether or not the caloric content of foods should be listed on menus. Of course, restaurants are reluctant to do this.

One of the best arguments that I’ve seen for doing this can be found in a little item in BusinessWeek (February 11, 2008). In an article on this very topic, the magazine featured a picture of a Quiznos Tuna Melt sandwich (12 inches long, 1.3 lb.). Guess how many calories? A whopping 2,090!!!! Although I am not a proponent of calorie counting, 2,090 calories is an absolutely ridiculous amount of calories for something that is 1) just a sandwich and 2) just one meal in an entire day. If the restaurant industry insists on tempting Americans with huge quantities of cheap, caloric-excessive food, I think that they should have to put that information where it is easy to read. I am sure that they would find a decreased demand for their large tuna melt at Quiznos. Here’s the link to the article: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_06/b4070036764931.htm?chan=search

If this information were to appear on menus, what would Americans do? For one thing, I bet more people would buy donuts than muffins at Dunkin’ Donuts and feel virtuous for doing so. In the March issue of Consumer Reports, there is a delightful little quiz about which of two items has fewer calories and less fat. It turns out that a Dunkin’ Donuts French Cruller has 180 calories and 13 grams of fat while a Dunkin’ Donuts corn muffin has 510 calories and 18 grams of fat! In another person favorite, a Ruby Tuesday Triple Prime Burger has 883 calories and 56 grams of fat while the Ruby Tuesday Parmesan Shrimp Pasta has 1,221 calories and 64 grams of fat. And did you know that 3 Big Macs have fewer calories and less fat than one individual Uno deep-dish Schroom pizza? How is that possible? It makes you wonder about what, exactly, is in that Schroom pizza.

I’m not advocating any of these choices, but I do think it would interesting to see what Americans would do if the caloric information were readily available to them. Perhaps restaurants would discover that there was more of an appetite out there for healthy choices and reasonable portions than they imagined.