After going down to a 48-48 defeat, HB 1207 was raised from the dead and passed on a 51-46 vote.
The bill requires a food establishment with 20 or more locations in Indiana to make certain nutritional information available to customers for each item or unit of food.
In particular, the following information must be made available:
(1) Total calories.
(2) Total fat in grams.
(3) Total saturated fat in grams.
(4) Total trans fat in grams.
(5) Total cholesterol in grams.
(6) Total sodium in milligrams.
(7) Total carbohydrates in grams.
(8) Total fiber in grams.
(9) Total sugars in grams.
(10) Total protein in grams.
If I’m reading it right, calories and carbs have to be immediately accessible on a menu. The rest can be in a separate document.
Is this really going to change anyone’s eating habits?
It would mine. I would be more likely to eat out than I am now.
I’m trying to watch my weight, but because so many places don’t make this information available, I don’t eat out much.
Those that are not watching their intake shouldn’t be affected.
People trying to watch their intake will likely be surprised in some cases. Sometimes that healthy restaurant salad is worse than the hamburger.
Doug, you’re a Bourdain fan, right? Have you not read his early books?
Eat the parsley and throw away the meal. In most restaurants that’s your one healthy option.
I’ve only just realized I like his show. Maybe I’ll have to check out his books.
Just wondering what about the little mom and pop eating place –sure might be challenge to determine all this—and likely liability if some “expert” determines they were in error. Why not just post a sign: “eating anything here may be dangerous to your health” –works for many other products.
Mom & Pop don’t have 20 or more establishments in Indiana likely. The law doesn’t kick in unless you have 20 or more restaurants in Indiana.
Would this change my eating habits? No, but it would probably change what I order in restaurants and would likely force restaurants to offer a few healthier options. If I was looking at something and could see right on the menu that the option I was considering is 1300 calories, I know I wouldn’t order it. Doug’s right, even when you try to order a healthier option, it can be very deceiving. (I’m looking at you, Panera.)
I’ve got a pretty good grasp on nutrition, but I love to eat out. Makes it hard sometimes and this would help.
For the first time in history the life expectancy of today’s youth is projected to be shorter than their parents. Early onset obesity causing early onset diseases like diabetes and heart disease is the known association.
Of course, HB 1207 can not make anyone chose healthier eating habits for themselves or their kids, but it can and will assist those who are motivated. As others have said, just knowing the portion sizes, calories, fat grams etc. that they are being served at a typical restaurant meal would be a helpful eye opener.
Which is exactly why I think the National Restaurant Association (NRA) has opposed this type of federal legislation for nearly 20 years? That was until states like CA, NY, MA decided they couldn’t afford to wait longer and passed state legislation; which is when the NRA finally agreed to conditional support of federal legislation. The conditions: only the LEAN Act of 2008 version – which includes striping state rights to legislate the issue, includes only chains with 20 or more locations, includes a guaranteed protection against lawsuits for bad data, includes NRA input for the what, how and where the nutritional data is provided to the consumer and includes the misleading statement that the average person should consume 2000 calories a day.
I’m glad the House passed this bill and hope that the Senate will take another look at the “mom and pop†or that 20 or few locations definition as it would exclude some high traffic eateries… I’m thinking of multi’s like Don Hall’s in FW.
I think mom & pops should be included at some point, just not at first.
Really, how hard is it to add and divide? If you can’t add the calories of your ingredients and divide them by portions, how in the world do you add up the cost of your ingredients and divide them by portions to come up with how much you need to charge?
It is the exact same math here, folks.
I would only think this legislation useful if restaurants also posted the recommended daily allowance of fat and calories and carbs as well. 1300 calories doesn’t mean much if you have no idea how many you should have in a given day. Was it Indiana where two people were barred from an all you can eat buffet on their eighth trip up and protested that they were on the Atkins diet?
Katie…I’m curious..”For the first time in history the life expectancy of today’s youth is projected to be shorter than their parents.”
Where did you find that?
Lemming,
It isn’t the restaurant’s job to provide recommendations on how much people should eat.
However, they should tell people that the steak has less calories than the loaded salad.
I don’t want them to have to do any more than they should. They made the food, they should say what is in it. They don’t get to recommend how much of it I should eat, and the certainly shouldn’t be forced to do that.
National Institute of Health:
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/mar2005/nia-16.htm
It is the exact same math here, folks.
actually, it’s not, because different cooking methods will add different amounts of fat and calories. something grilled will have less fat/calories than the same item would if pan-fried, which in turn will have less fat/calories than if it were deep-fried.
“actually, it’s not, because different cooking methods will add different amounts of fat and calories.”
Actually, it’s not the cooking method that increases the different fat/kc counts, it’s the additional ingredients (fat/butter/heavy cream) used to achieve the different cooking methods.
Still, Jason’s point is correct: it’s just simple adding and dividing of recipe ingredients.
If you pan fry with x grams of oil will the food absorb the same amount as it would if deep fried with the same amount of oil?
If you pan fry with x grams of oil will the food absorb the same amount as it would if deep fried with the same amount of oil?
i’m not sure that it will. but more specifically, when you deep fry something, you immerse it in a large quantity of oil, and subsequently throw much of the oil away. so knowing how much oil you used is irrelevant: the important number is how much oil was absorbed by the food.
Pan frying and deep frying are both dry heat cooking methods, cooked right there is no significant difference in how much of fat is absorbed.
The important nutritional consideration is what kind of fat was used in the recipe,
saturated versus polyunsaturated versus monounsaturated, hydrogenated…
While not as exact as professionals use, there is also nutritional analysis software available for individual use… a free online example can be found at: http://fitday.com/
I’m very amused that it’s the thread about eating and eating out that has aroused so much discussion.
Jason – I take your point, but respectfully disagree. In my opinion, if people really don’t know about calories and fat, they probably also don’t know about RDA. If people need to be told one, then they need to be spoon-fed (pardon the pun) the other. Both are protecting the public from themselves.
(ducks)
I didn’t realize until a few years ago that I must have grown up in a very strange family, as we talked about all of this quiet often. Maybe it was all of those organic zucchinis Mom made me eat…
Jason: It is not all that easy for Mom and Pop places to do complete nutritional analyses of all their menu items. They would likely have to have a lab analyze their menu items. Most chain restaurants have already done so, so this bill would not result in too much of a burden for them.
Chain restaurants tend to serve the same food all the time. When they do introduce new items, those foods have been through months of testing and analysis. Locally owned restaurants may have daily specials and seasonal dishes that they serve only on occasion, maybe on the spur of the moment.
Lemming,
To me, the point is to make the information available, not to try to convince someone to make a change. If someone already wants to eat healthy, they can seek out the RDA (which is a bit of a joke, since it is too high for half of the people and too low for the other half). They can’t determine what is in the food unless told, since they didn’t make it.
Pila and stAllio make good points about the hard to determine issue of how much fat is lost during grilling, or added during pan or deep frying. I had not thought of that.
I guess the only thing would be to include the totals of raw ingredients with a note that the item is grilled, pan or deep fried, noting that one reduces the fat & calories and the others increase it.
To me, the goal would just be to get something that can be used to make good decisions. Having the ability to compare items on the menu would be a good start.
As to legal issues, couldn’t we say that the goal is to be within 10%? Keep out the lawsuits for someone that is upset that the menu said 1,200 calories when it was 1,220.
Pila: Several expertly informed organizations have voiced support for HB 1207 including: The American Heart Association, Indiana State Medical Association and the Indiana Dietetic Association. The bill, if passed, would be long awaited progress towards providing informed consent to restaurant patrons; another step in fighting the rising health concerns and costs associated with obesity.
The argument that this bill would burden “mom & pop†operations is utter nonsense. First, the bill contains a 20 locations or more stipulation which automatically excludes, by definition, the “mom and pop†restaurants. Second, the statement that restaurant would “… likely have to have a lab analyze their menu items…†is not correct as there is professional software available that reliably analyzes the macro nutrients of foods based on recipe ingredients and cooking methods. The software has been in use for decades, as the IDA can easily testify.
Lawmakers need to rely on the experts testifying and not the lobbyists — in this case, the Indiana Restaurant Association – when deliberating.
Katie: Stop jumping to conclusions, please. I’m not against the bill at all. I work in public health and have posted at least once on this blog that I’m all for this bill. I’m well aware of the 20 establishment requirement and why it is in the bill. Doug had originally posted it as 10, IIRC. Most chain restaurants have already done the nutritional analysis on their menu items, so posting it on a menu or elsewhere would not be burdensome to them. I’ve never suggested otherwise.
My post above was responding to Jason saying that Mom and Pop restaurants ought to comply with the nutrition availability requirements. I’m also well aware of software being available to do nutritional analysis. As someone who has actually worked with Mom and Pop retail food establishments as a health inspector, I can tell you that many of them do not have computers on hand either at home or at the restaurant. Many of the people who own and operate small restaurants don’t know how to work a computer and aren’t going to get a friend to do the analysis for them. That’s just reality. I didn’t even bring that up before, because it seems every time I say that a significant number of people don’t have internet access, don’t know how to use computers, etc., I get a bunch of disbelieving responses from others who post here.
I wasn’t jumping to conclusions, Pila. I was responding to what I understood you to say in post 22 which seems somewhat tilted from what you’re now saying in post 25.
Still, I am glad to hear you totally agree that all restaurants ought to comply with the Restaurant Nutrition bill and that there is indeed software available to perform the not so burdensome task.
And who knows… maybe this bill is just the motivation needed to get those small business operators up to speed with all of today’s ‘newfangled’ technology.
I do not “totally agree that all restaurants ought to comply” with this bill. The restaurants covered by the bill ought to comply. I have not “tilted” anything from one post to the next, either. I think we agree somewhat and disagree to a certain degree.
Small establishments are not likely to get nutrition software, since they are not covered by this bill, nor would they necessarily get the software if they were covered in a subsequent revision. I’ve worked with such establishments extensively, and they almost always find ways not to comply with anything that they see as burdensome, especially if enforcement is lax, which it usually is.
Well doggone it, Pila, I was really hoping you agreed that all chain restaurants should be included in HB1207. As the bill was originally written, the exemption applied to 10 locations or less – a closer but still inaccurate definition of mom & pop restaurant you keep referring to – but was changed to 20 locations or more. And that’s my beef with HB 1207.
Changing the exemptions from 10 to 20 locations in Indiana excludes too many high traffic chain restaurants that currently do not make available their nutritional data, anywhere. The quick example I gave earlier was Don Hall’s, a 13 location operation.