MoneySaving Poll: Should restaurant menus tell you the calories?

Former_MSE_Sam_M

Poll started 5 January 2015

Should restaurant menus tell you the calories?

It’s a new year and a great swathe of the nation is on a diet. In some US cities it’s a requirement that menus tell you how many calories are in their dishes ― would you welcome that information being compulsory here or would you prefer not to know?

Please choose the option CLOSEST to your opinion.

Vote in this week's poll

Did you vote? Are you surprised at the results so far? Have your say below. To see the results from last time, click here.

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.

Thanks!


[threadbanner]box[/threadbanner]

catalina66

Totally agree. Since starting weight loss in summer, have got used to thinking simply in calories, but less range to eat. Dining out would be too much hassle. Not knowing the calories is a real pain, especially if it would take a week to lose back the gained lb. So many kids obese now as well. Really feel having the calorie amounts is needed, to safeguard children's health and teach them about good health, as well as to help adults lose weight.

Mrs_Arcanum

Trouble is the media etc has become obsessed with "healthy" eating. This is causing all sorts of problems with more people becoming underweight/malnourished.

The focus should be on doing more exercise which will cause far fewer problems.

Flick216

No! Why bother going out for dinner if you are going to worry about every mouthful!? Unless you are going out for dinner all the time that is!

Most of us go out every now again as a treat - I don't want a treat to be ruined by knowing how many calories I have eaten. Let's face it - if you had Chocolate Fudge Cake for dessert - you already know you've had a lot of calories.

Idiophreak

catalina66 wrote: »

Really feel having the calorie amounts is needed, to safeguard children's health and teach them about good health, as well as to help adults lose weight.

Children don't need to be taught to count calories. They need to be taught general sense about food.

Most people know that the Caesar salad's going to be better for you than the double bacon burger with chips and onion rings. Writing "500" and "2000" next to them on a menu's not going to make a difference. People will still eat whatever they want and think will be tastiest.

Most people know that a bowl of fruit and fibre in the morning is better for them than the Full English at Greasy Sal's...and yet...These aren't people getting confused "oh wait....there are more calories in this huge, tasty meal than a small icky bowl of cardboard sticks?" - they're just people making choices.

So teaching people to make smarter choices is the key....let them know that it's OK to have the baconator every now and then, as long as they have a few of those Caesar's on other days and run around a bit. This is far more valuable than relying on numbers, traffic lights or any other gimmicky quantification....

SuzieSue

I would like to know so that if there is more than one dish I would like to order then I could go for the one with the fewest calories.

beebware

Flick216 wrote: »

No! Why bother going out for dinner if you are going to worry about every mouthful!? Unless you are going out for dinner all the time that is!

Unless you have to work away from home for a few nights every month (or longer) - so you've got no choice but to "eat out". Last time, I had a choice of a Nandos (10 mile drive) or a Pizza Express - no other places seemed to offer calorie information (I would have gone for a McDonalds to be honest: yes, it's a lot of calories but at least I know *how* many!)

I just don't understand why some "fast food" places (McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut) seem to be forced to put calorie/nutritional information (after all, some people *have* to avoid high-fat items) on their menus, but more "upmarket" places don't (and fish'n'chips places etc don't either). Seems double standards to me.

suicidebob

Counting calories is what makes people fat, so that's useless.
Calories are only important when you're eating low quality food.
Eat quality food and you can eat until you're satisfied.

Idiophreak

beebware wrote: »

Unless you have to work away from home for a few nights every month (or longer) - so you've got no choice but to "eat out". Last time, I had a choice of a Nandos (10 mile drive) or a Pizza Express - no other places seemed to offer calorie information (I would have gone for a McDonalds to be honest: yes, it's a lot of calories but at least I know *how* many!)

So you could have gone somewhere else and had, say, steamed salmon with greens and new potatoes, but you'd rather have a Pizza because you'd *know* you were consuming more calories. I'm not sure I get that. Surely you just go somewhere, order something healthy and take it from there...?

beebware

Idiophreak wrote: »

So you could have gone somewhere else and had, say, steamed salmon with greens and new potatoes, but you'd rather have a Pizza because you'd *know* you were consuming more calories. I'm not sure I get that. Surely you just go somewhere, order something healthy and take it from there...?

Well, I did have a "low-calorie" pizza (basically, a pizza with a whole in the middle replaced with just green salad) and I knew the "exact" count of calories and fat in it (and when you've got a target to keep to, you try and account for all of it). I did try somewhere else, but all it'll take is a cheese sauce or cooking in oil and -bang-... Plus I only really had a selection of 7 places as it was November and everywhere else was take-out and the hotel didn't allow hot-food in (even though it's restaurant was never open).

catalina66

Idiophreak wrote: »

Children don't need to be taught to count calories. They need to be taught general sense about food.

Most people know that the Caesar salad's going to be better for you than the double bacon burger with chips and onion rings. Writing "500" and "2000" next to them on a menu's not going to make a difference. People will still eat whatever they want and think will be tastiest.

Most people know that a bowl of fruit and fibre in the morning is better for them than the Full English at Greasy Sal's...and yet...These aren't people getting confused "oh wait....there are more calories in this huge, tasty meal than a small icky bowl of cardboard sticks?" - they're just people making choices.

So teaching people to make smarter choices is the key....let them know that it's OK to have the baconator every now and then, as long as they have a few of those Caesar's on other days and run around a bit. This is far more valuable than relying on numbers, traffic lights or any other gimmicky quantification....

Yes, but I still think that a simple number on a menu makes life far easier for everyone.