Menu Law

California… trying so hard to do things right. Recently, California passed a bill making texting while driving illegal and now we hear about a bill requiring restaurants to publicly display the calorie counts of their menu items. Once again, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law a “feel good” law. As with the texting law, the new law doesn’t really have any “teeth.” Under the newly signed “menu law,” restaurants with 20 or more locations must include calorie counts of their products both on the printed menu and on the in store ordering boards… by 2011. However, they must begin offering calorie brochures next year well in advance of the 2011 deadline.

Basically, this bill is aimed at national restaurant chains and not the mom and pop restaurants or local “mini chains.” While this bill makes sense in a logical way, does it really need to be a law? Are our citizens so mentally challenged that we cannot rationally understand that a triple cheeseburger with a large fry and large soft drink is bad for us? Is a law requiring caloric counts of foods seriously going to deter the eating habits of our society?

Sure, some people will see the numbers and alter their decisions and parents may even make better choices for their children when bringing home the quick dinner. But, the problem is in the food itself. Chain restaurants are notorious for having unhealthy food. Do you see people on a healthy food regimen eating at the local fast food stops on a regular basis? Of course you don’t. Do you see people trying to eat healthy ordering a small fry, rather than large, because they saw the calorie counts on the menu board? Well, maybe for some who aren’t metabolically challenged, but for the most part, healthy eating in no way or form includes eating fries from a fast food restaurant.

In the end, this law is a gentle reminder law. What you order may be bad for you. It’s a warning label similar to other warning labels on things that are bad for us. Problem is we already know fast food is “bad” for us. However, it’s cheap, fast, and satisfies hunger. We don’t need a law to tell us this “new” information. What we need is more time at home so we can effectively make healthy decisions about what we eat. We need more time to cook and prepare healthy meals for our family.

Is a fast food chain with a menu of salad going to make it? Nope. Is a fast food chain with only healthy yogurt and fruit drinks going to make it in mainstream America? Nope. Even then, the so called “healthy” menu items aren’t really all that healthy at times. The pyramid of nutrition has been around forever as far as I know (yeah, I exaggerated). We are all taught that we need the basic staples of nutrition to live healthy and we even have a general idea of how many calories it takes for us to survive each day. But, we just don’t have the time to focus upon one of the most important aspects of living.

Preparing a healthy meal takes time, something we don’t have an oversupply of. We can continue to sign into law “tricks” to help society make better decisions, but the root of the issue is time in my opinion… time with the family and also time to prepare healthy meals. I’ve not even gone into the issue that the “healthy” items in grocery stores are generally more costly to purchase. Adding a law requiring calorie counts makes us feel better and more informed, but it doesn’t change the fact that we are still faced with the underlying problems of why we are at the fast food restaurant in the first place.

Maybe we’ll see a new law from California in the coming months requiring Californians to drink their eight glasses of water per day. Or maybe we’ll see a law fining people who don’t have their tire pressures at maximum efficiency. How about a law requiring people to take a daily vitamin in the morning? I could go on forever. Yes, we want to make things better and we need to eliminate the obesity problem our country is facing, but rather than focusing on the calorie counts on menu boards, how about focusing on the ingredients in the food itself? Make the FOOD healthier or remove it and give the family more time to prepare healthy meals while making healthy foods affordable.