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| No | 50% | 1150 votes | Total: 2283 votes | |
| Yes | 50% | 1133 votes |
No
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Add to FavoritesOh my heavens - NO! Why on earth would we want to do that? For the sake of some guilt trip? To punish fat people? To make eating out as unpleasant and boring as possible?
Okay, yes. I'm standing up right now and being counted: I'm fat. Overweight. Obese. In fact, morbidly obese. I'm afraid to get on my bathroom scale because I suffer from depression, and reading those triple digits will NOT help improve my day. So surely I should want to be counting every calorie that goes into my mouth? Wouldn't that help ease this whole "obesity epidemic" that the western world is suffering?
No. Because eating out isn't about calories and weight and obesity. Eating out is about experience and socialising and exploring the art of cooking. I'm not talking about grabbing a burger at lunchtime, I'm talking about sitting down with a bunch of friends and looking at a menu that's been brought to your table by a member of the waiting staff and spending some time talking to my friends and deciding whether I want to have the curry or something out of the tandoor. Whether I'll try something that took hours to cook, or something that's relied on the delicate culinary arts to come to fruition, and whichever it is that I choose, I want to choose it because it suits my mood, my state of hunger, the ambiance of the evening. I don't want it to be governed by some bloody guilt trip of how many calories it's got going on there and how many grams of fat and oh my goodness, this won't fit in with my diet, I'll just have a lettuce leaf thanks.
When I'm eating out I want to eat. I want it to be a pleasure and I want to choose my meal for the enjoyment value. Anybody who reads a women's magazine knows perfectly well that the grilled lean meat with steamed veggies or a side salad (no croutons, no dressing) is going to have fewer calories and less fat than the oily curry or deep fried whatever and can make that call without having to do a whole bunch of math over it.
The other point is - have you ever really read a restaurant menu? How many of them can actually get the spelling right and consistent? Precious few in my experience. And you think you want to trust them to put down a whole bunch of numbers about calories and stuff? Come on. They'll just bung in a few random numbers that they've made up on the spot. It'll be totally unreliable.
Eat out. Be aware of what you're eating and why. Enjoy yourself. Let an evening at a nice restaurant be one of life's pleasures. Let's not turn yet another thing into a guilt trip.
Learn more about this author, Amanda Le Bas De Plumetot.
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Yes
What are the things that come to your mind when we think of things that make us what we are?
Food is one of the items. What we eat decides how long we live and it determines the quality of life. Our diet decides our response to disease, stress, accidents, and immunity to change in environment or how our body reacts / manages a change in diet.
The point is how many of us understand the role food plays. Should we be careful as to what we eat? I believe we should be very careful as to what we eat. Especially in these times it is all the more important to be careful what you eat. Considering that everything we do depends upon whether we have good health which in turn depends on our diet.
It may sound going too far for some people; some may argue that they do not know the meaning of the technical terms that is used on food items. However it is imperative that we are given a greater say in deciding what we eat. If we do not care as to what we are eating then we are putting ourselves at great risk. We are putting our blind trust in the hands of people who are cooking. I doubt even the ones who cook would know what choices have been made. For that matter even the sellers in supermarkets consider this more of a fuss as even they are not sure how things would improve if we start to mention all ingredients on the packaging itself.
People around the world hardly give due consideration to what we have been eating as individuals and the results are for everyone to see. It shows the lack of concern to our own health and the health of our loved ones.
Let us ask ourselves some simple questions. How many people around us are healthy? How many people around us consider themselves healthy?
It is high time that people understand the importance of the food that we eat and our food habits to get a better understanding of our very basic need. I understand a vast majority are disenchanted because they have blindly fallen for the advice we see on television or what we read in books and magazines. That has not taken us anywhere. It is high time we make some effort and take the matters in our own hands. It is about time we demand that all dishes in restaurants mention the contents and quantity in detail for us to understand and make a educated decision about the choices that we make. We need to ensure that all of us understand that Health is indeed Wealth and that ultimately only we can decide what is good for us.
Therefore I would say, Absolutely Yes. We should have detailed description of the contents, calorific value etc on each food item so that we may make an informed decision
Learn more about this author, Gaurav Mahendru.
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