by Karen Kalbacher

Created on: April 07, 2011

Restaurants should be required to list the nutritional information in their foods. It's no different from going into the supermarket and seeing an ingredients/nutritional information on the side of the package. Customers have a right to know what they are purchasing. Most people have no concept of how the food is prepped and cooked in a fine restaurant and so normal foods like spaghetti and meatballs can have twice the calories and triple the fat than what mom and grand mom are cooking in their home kitchens. Restaurants may use higher fat content oils or cheeses in preparation to make food taste richer. They may also use ingredients that sound healthy like nuts or fish but contain fats that are hidden.

For diners on a diet this helps them decide whether they're choosing a healthy meal or a seemingly healthy meal. A lot of people think that just because they order a salad that they are eating a light meal. This isn't always true. Salads with meat, cheese and dressing can compound calories. At this point you could have ordered a steak and baked potato and gotten the same calorie load and a more filling meal. Also they might just decide to swap their french fries for sweet potato fries and realize that healthy foods can be just as delicious. They should also put the calorie load for alcoholic drinks on their menus for the same reason.

For diners not on a diet it's not going to be as important to them to see the calorie counts but maybe they are watching the fat content or just curious about just how decadent their dessert really is. And just because someone isn't on a diet doesn't mean they're going to want to dive into a 10,000 calorie salad either. But some diners might just want to brag about how they finished a meal that could have fed thirteen people for two days.

Honesty is the best policy. Informed customers can't complain later that their favorite restaurant made them overweight by hiding the nutritional information from them in some sort of sneaky fat conspiracy. It won't stop anyone from ordering the desserts to see that they are loaded with fat and calories. Most people know something called 'death by chocolate' isn't going to be good for them. That doesn't hold anyone back from ordering it with their candy cane martini and loaded fries chaser.

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