by Brittany Murrietta

Created on: December 24, 2007

Bleu Cheese and Walnut Salad; my mom orders one every time we get food from Mimi's Cafe. She's under the impression that it's a healthy alternative to any of the other items on the menu. I know better than to trust nutritional propaganda so promptly. Urged on by my increasing amount of skepticism, I check a few websites to find the entrees nutritional content. Mimi's Cafe's nutrition section on its website states that the nutritional content of the Cranberry Walnut salad, in size petite, contains 713 calories, 61g total fat, 33mg of cholesterol, 1009ml sodium, and is 65% saturated fat. Has it become acceptable for a small salad to have this much fat content in it? Seven-hundred and thirteen calories in a petite salad; if my mother knew this she'd never touch a Bleu Cheese and Walnut Salad again in her life, and I don't blame her. Who would really want a seven hundred calorie salad? Would restaurants have as many customers as they do if people knew the nutritional value of their meals? Is it fair that we're left oblivious to what we're eating? Restaurants should be required to list the nutritional information of their dishes on their menus, because in a world where we are what we eat, we have the right to know whether we're a seven hundred calorie salad or not.

"At this point, we do not provide nutritional information for our menu selections. We pride ourselves on using only the freshest and finest ingredients available. Everything on our menu is made in-house on a daily basis so that we can maintain the highest food quality standards." States the section on the website of the Cheesecake Factory where nutritional information is expected to be. Statements from restaurants such as this one have begun to sound like a broken record. Restaurants claim that they provide a healthy alternative to the other items on their menu, and they have taken their time and used their funds to come up with newer healthier menu items to please the FDA. It would seem that the restaurants have done their part to make sure that the consumer has a healthy alternative. They've gone through this so that they wouldn't need to list nutritional information on their menus. Why would a restaurant need to list nutritional information when they offer healthy food items?

The answer is simple; because many of the food items that restaurants claim to be healthy are not healthy whatsoever. One study conducted by The Journal of Marketing discovered that nutrient claims such as "for a healthy heart"

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