sam sall
Tash Jayasinghe
CibbuanoNew York gets calorie stickers and people are shocked by muffins
July 17th 2008 02:12
Category: Diet
On one hand it's a good step... we've been confused by the chaff of all these labels: fat-free, low-fat, low-sodium, extra-flavour, no sugar added, etc.
On the other hand, eating has turned into the sheer consumption of nutrition, with no sensory delight attached to it. New York is a place to revel in pizza and bagels, the sandwiches and the hot dogs. Now, with calorie stickers, you'll glumly sit down with your celery sticks.
As NBC reports, residents are in for a slap in the face.
"She was about to order her usual morning coffee and muffin at Dunkin’ Donuts when she saw the new calorie labels. The chocolate chip muffin she had her eye on was 630 calories.
“I was blown away,” said Cara, a 27-year-old homemaker from Forest Hills in New York City. “I’m not a no-carb type of person, and I usually don’t even think about it. But you pick up a little muffin with your coffee, and it has 630 calories in it? That’s a bit extreme!” "
“I was blown away,” said Cara, a 27-year-old homemaker from Forest Hills in New York City. “I’m not a no-carb type of person, and I usually don’t even think about it. But you pick up a little muffin with your coffee, and it has 630 calories in it? That’s a bit extreme!” "
There's an uncomfortable truth in dining... when I worked at a local Sydney cafe, we'd get groups of people, fresh from the gym or a run, coming in for dinner, ordering a pasta or risotto, enjoying it with great relish, not realizing that it was all cooked with butter. That's how we make it taste good - if we used the same low-fat methods that you use in your kitchen, it'd taste awful.
Even better - people that order thickshakes made with skim milk. It's a common order, and though I tried to suggest that it was a particularly futile order, the common answer is 'yeah, but it makes me feel better.'
"At T.G.I. Friday’s, one of the few sit-down chain restaurants to have already added calorie counts to menus, a group of young women gasped as they studied the menu, barely able to find a meal under 1,000 calories, never mind an appetizer or dessert."
Giving out raw data allows consumers to see the real effect of what they're eating, and the misconceptions that they might have had before:
"But the 26 year old just discovered that the Friday’s pecan-crusted chicken salad, served with mandarin oranges, dried cranberries and celery, has 1,360 calories.
“That surprised me the most because they market it as a healthy option,” she said. “It’s like false advertising. You think it’s better than the burger and the fries. It’s misleading.” (The cheeseburger served with fries is, indeed, 1,290 calories.) "
When you're eating a salad that weighs more in calories than a cheeseburger and fries, it's time to lay off the salads. 1 360 calories!
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