Calories on menus in restaurants

I never look at the calories if given. Spoils my choice so I don't do it when out for a rare enough meal as a treat. And I don't care either even if I notice the calorie count, if I want that particular dish, I'll have it. Too many aspects of our lives are controlled.

Personally I find the notion absurd. I want to enjoy a meal out and not be guilt tripping over calories.

I think this idea would be torture for anyone with an eating disorder and possibly lead to more people being blighted with one.

That's a much better idea.

Simply have two menus a standard menu without the calories and another one with the calories on it. Diners get the standard menu unless they request the one indicating the calorific value of what they are eating.

In theory it seems like a good idea, at least to have it available on request. Is it reasonable to expect every restaurant to come up with the calorie count for every dish? Do you need specialist input from a nutrionist for this? What about specials based on freshly available products?

I can see some merit for lunch menus perhaps but in all honesty, if a person is going out to, or being brought out to Dinner, are they really concerned about calories. People will invariably choose what they percieve as a healthy option, Salads, Fish, vegetarian etc.

Notwithstanding the Dietry expertise and additional expense, how does an establishment go about assertaining Calories in freshly produced food, obviously it may not be intended to be precise but it would be a cumbersome undertaking particularly in establishments that change menus nightly or regularly. How does a chef assertain how many calories in a Sauce for example.

I recall in my time in the industry it was being discussed and there was universal disquiet about the idea. It was even a struggle to get establishments list Gluten Free dishes and what was known them as "Healthy Option"

I don't disagree with the idea but wonder what would the point be and I suspect there would not be universal approval of this idea in the industry.

More red tape & beauracracy for the restaurants and responsibility been forced back onto businesses rather then individuals using cop on and taking some personal responsibility

Yeah my job involves travel. I've come up with some creative ways to eat healthy while in hotels. Restaurants and takeaways are fine for a treat once a month or whatever, but if you have to eat out every meal for a week, it's very difficult to get genuinely healthy food that isn't miles out of balance for calories.

Obesity is a pretty big problem and it's getting worse. People tend to way underestimate the calories in food, so I think giving people the choice to know the calories in food is a sensible idea. We do it for most food in supermarkets, so why not do it for food in restaurants? Is there a big objection to calories on supermarket foods on the grounds that it exacerbates eating disorders?

Why?

Agree with portion size options being more useful. A 25 year old 7 ft person doing sports training 4 times a week does not have the same calorie needs of a 50 year old 5 ft tall office working person. So why does the person with a lower calorific meal need to pay full price for a meal they only eat half of. Let them have a small / large option on the menu.

Having small / large options on food is normal on loads of menus in other countries, don't know why it's not here.

On calorie counts, I'm sure it is helpful for customers who want to count calories. It does limit creativity in a kitchen, so that's the disadvantage. Mitigated by it only applying to large chains with standard menu's I think.

And for travel, I travel for work too, and have been found it occasionally wearying to try to get something that isn't a very rich and heavy meal. It's tricky enough with translating, but I'm not sure calorie counts would help, unless there is a standard way to write it. Even on packaged products, sometimes calories are per 100g and you've to do some calculations. Or a "portion" is a subset of what's in front of you.

It makes restaurant menus look very fast foodish. Ive no issue with them in fast food places mind you. Im only referring to proper food in nice places.

That's grand. If its just a matter of menu style preference then it's no big deal. And certainly not a reason not to do it.

It would only apply to relatively large restaurants, mostly chains, anyway. So not a problem.

Im all for people being informed, again, QR code. Takes literally 5 seconds to pull up. Keep it off the table. QR menus will be common place here shortly. Standard in loads of other countries.

Should there be calories on wine aswell? That varies. And cocktails? Whiskeys etc? What about all the soft drinks? Some of them can have more calories than the food.

I'd imagine the warnings on cigarettes are much more impactful on young people who grow up and the first things they know about cigarettes is that they cause illness disease. It might have some impact on current smokers but I'd say they have little or no effect on long term smokers.

That's fine though. All strategy needs long and short term impacts. And I'd say it would work the same for calories on menus. Might have little impact on obese people who habitually overeat, bit would probably have more impact on the children of today when they reach adulthood.

The appeal to eating disorders is classic. I'd bet good money that the same posters who pretend to care about eating disorders would oppose or be apathetic to measures to help people with eating disorders.

Theres a genuinely fascinating attitude and its pretty prevalent on Boards which could be summed up as "I don't want better, I want what I'm used to".

I can't see any reason to oppose putting calories on menus as outlined above. It's unlikely to have a huge impact in the short term, but is likely to have greater impact in the longer term. Obesity is pretty serious and will cost the country a fortune so thsy means higher tax in the future. This is one way to address the issue for the future.

Yeah if were going down that route then sodium needs to be added. Thats a killer.