Nov. 18, 2007
Expert: Many Underestimate Calories
Health Advocates Want To Force Restaurant Chains To List Calories On Menus
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Lesley Stahl's Notebook
Eating out is making Americans fat because they don't know what they're eating. Lesley Stahl discusses her story about the hidden calories in the food we eat.
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Fast Food For Thought
In the fight against obesity, powerful health officials want to see chain restaurants like McDonald's and Wendy's display calories on their menu boards. Lesley Stahl reports.
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The obesity epidemic is caused by many factors, but nutritionists say one main reason is how dependent we've become on eating out.
When you cook at home, most ingredients in your cupboard have mandatory FDA nutrition labels. But restaurants are exempt, so when you place your order you can only guesstimate how many calories you'll be putting in your mouth.
Now one of the most powerful health officials in the country wants to change that by forcing chain restaurants like McDonald's and Wendy's to spell out exactly how fattening their food is -- right when you decide what to order.
As correspondent Lesley Stahl reports, the idea is gaining support nationwide, but also faces fierce opposition from the restaurant industry itself.
It all started last December, when New York City passed a regulation requiring chain restaurants to post the calories of their food right on their menus or menu boards.
"We think it will encourage people to choose lower calorie options because that information will be available to them," explains New York's health commissioner, Thomas Frieden.
Frieden is in charge of regulating New York City's $11 billion restaurant market, and tells Stahl the restaurants "really hate" having to do this. "There's no question about that," he says.
"Now most of the chains have the nutritional information somewhere," Stahl points out.
"Usually on a Web site hidden somewhere," Frieden says. "Or on the package liner or the tray liner, after you've bought the product."
Asked why that isn't enough, Frieden argues, "No one is going to check a Web site, then go to the local burger joint and decide what to buy. People do look at the menu board. The menu board is the most prominent thing within a fast food restaurant."
The regulation would cover mainly big chains, like KFC, Burger King, McDonald's and Starbucks.
Frieden wants people to see as they order that some combo meals, like one from Burger King, pack 2,200 calories -- more calories than many adults need in a day. Some Starbucks drinks are more fattening than Big Macs. And even what seems good for you might be anything but.
"You might think that tuna salad, because it says it's salad, is healthier. But you might see it's many more calories than a roast beef sandwich. And you might prefer the roast beef sandwich, too. You were having the tuna salad because you thought it was healthy," Frieden explains.
Brian Wansink is a nutrition and marketing professor at Cornell University. He uses the mall as a laboratory, observing the food-court crowd like other scientists study rare tribes.
Wansink, who even wrote a book called "Mindless Eating," finds that people always underestimate calories, but they get it especially wrong when they’re eating something they think is healthy.
On one of his recent "observation trips," Wansink concentrated on meals from Subway, which markets itself as the healthy fast-food alternative. He asked people to estimate the calories of an especially caloric combo: a foot-long Subway sandwich with mayo, chips and juice.
"Now for this you estimated that it had about 300 calories," Wansink pointed out to a man. "In reality it has 1,390."
"When people are eating in a restaurant that they think is healthy, people grossly underestimate how much they eat by about 50 percent," Wansink explains.
"So they eat much more than they think they're eating?" Stahl asks.
"By about twice as much," he says. "That mayonnaise you ate probably was not healthy. The extra cookie you ate probably wasn't that healthy. The chips probably weren't that healthy."
"Well, let's say for instance that we would have had the calories listed on the menu when you ordered something like that. Would that influence what you ordered?" Wansink asked a man.
"Absolutely. I don't think I would have gotten it. I mean, 1,350 calories for a Subway," the man replied.
Produced By Shachar Bar-On
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 133 CommentsIf your fat and you go to a fast food joint it''s because you like what they have and you know what your eating.
So wipe the grease off of your lips stay home and eat a salad and if you don''t want to do that, then SHUT UP!!!
We spend the whole day on the internet, but it is too hard to look up calorie info on a fast food site. That is the most rediculous thing I have heard in a long time. Laughable.
The NY Health Commissioner must think New Yorkers children.
If Amercians cannot take responsibility for themselves, we are in a sorry and weak state.
OBCT = U/8
(obesity equals you over ate)
Just what we need, another government power monger grinding away at liberty.
Every person is accountable for what goes in his/her body. It''s unacceptable to expect the government to "spoon feed" society information on healthy eating. It''s not the fast food industry that''s making obese people; it''s people who don''t understand that concept of putting the fork down.
However, when "tubby" sitting next to me can''t figure out to stop stuffing his face with food and do some exercise, that doesn''t directly affect me while I am eating. That''s his health problem.
Therefore, I don''t want "big brother" ordering calorie counts on the menu. It''s time "tubby" took responsibility for his own actions.
Duh...I say....and I also say...kudos to McDonalds for fresh fruit options......and yogurtw/ fruit.....but they are about the only ones! Give us healthy fast food chains.....then we would all forgoe the fast food......the options need to be there in order to keep up with rising costs on just living in America, between insurance, home mortgages, gas, etc.... Don''t post a thing restaurants....we all know better...we just choose the convienence.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s773973.htm says that fast food may be actually addictive!! Much fast food is made from products steeped in antibiotics and growth hormones. Hormones, steroids, etc cause increased appetite and many other health problems.
Children especially are at risk of being targeted by fast food corporations. Children are more likely to be in poverty and are unable to think critically about complex health issues.
Finally, it is heartening to see a health department employee trying to protect people. Keep up the good work!
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