To the best of my knowledge the legislation that was signed into law by President Obama yesterday is called the Affordable Health Care for America Act. I am paying attention to the news for any mention of disease prevention or health promotion items within this new law and will highlight them as discovered.
Today I am happy to note that the bill included a provision to force fast food and other restaurant chains to list calorie content of their menu items at point of ordering location. A company that has more than 20 stores is considered a chain, so your Apple Bees, Red Lobsters, TGIFridays etc – will be included.. Oh, I bet there are more than 20 Bonefish Grills – yay! This means that you have to see the total calories BEFORE you place your order. There will be places to view other nutrient information, but the calories must be “in your face.”
Yes, we did have some reports earlier this year that people didn’t always pay attention to the content information and that it wasn’t always accurate – but this is still a step in the right direction.
What I hope to see next is health communications that target the consumer and teach a skill. The skill is to understand the menu and how the numbers can impact health. This will NOT make a difference in our obesity crisis if people don’t know about calories – it would be like putting SPF numbers on all the sunscreen but not telling anyone what SPF stood for OR that sun itself was a risk factor for skin cancer.
So – we (public health folks) have a lot to do to enhance this policy, and when we do, the chefs are going to respond to the consumers need for lower calorie options and in ten or twenty years – we may reduce the prevalence of obesity in this country.
I am very excited about this – knowledge is power….
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