Losing weight and being on a diet means knowing exactly what you’re eating at every meal. This usually rules out going out to restaurants because it’s always a mystery how your food is being prepared and with what ingredients. Portion sizes are also a challenge as they are usually way bigger than you’re supposed to eat in one meal.
The good news is, due to the lobbying efforts of community activists, more and more states are now providing detailed nutritional information on their menus. In some cases, this is mandated by law and in others restaurants are providing the information voluntarily in an effort to give the consumers what they want.
In many restaurants it’s now becoming common to see a wealth of detailed information on menus such as calorie counts, sodium levels and amount of saturated fats. Now, along with the ingredients that went into your lasagna you can also see how much salt you’re taking in as well. You have to be a little careful though to make sure that just because it says “low fat” next to a menu item that there isn’t a high level of other undesirable ingredients such as sodium or cholesterol. Low fat is a good idea but not if it’s at the expense of other nutritional goals.
In supermarkets and grocery stores it’s now becoming common to see some creative healthy claims alongside the package ingredients. Optimistic claims of lower heart disease, protection from Alzheimer’s disease and reduced risk of cancer can be found on many package labels when, in reality, their ingredients have actually changed very little or not at all. Putting “gluten free” on a package of pork chops is a little misleading to people who don’t understand what that means.
Consumers are slowly becoming educated about their food choices and are growing in awareness of the implications of what they’re eating. In a 2008 survey by the FDA, well over 50% of the respondents said that they always read the nutrition labels before they put food into their shopping carts. Over 40% reported that they weren’t tricked by dubious claims of “heart health” or “low fat”.
Giving what the customer wants is good for business. More and more restaurants and grocery stores realize this and are voluntarily providing the information that consumers want. This works out well for the customer and the business owners bottom line as well.
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