Do we really need restaurant calorie counts as recently proposed by the FDA? While it is true that a lot of restaurant food is bad for you, the bigger question is, do we really need the federal government getting involved in yet another facet of our society?
Lest you think it isn't such a big deal and it would be a good thing to have calories printed there right on the menu for the bacon double cheese burger, that begs another question, does anyone need to inform you of the calories of that bacon double cheeseburger, with the added mayo, ranch southwest sauce, when in fact you know it is bad for you? Do you need to be told a double cheese pizza with double meat has thousands of calories? Do calories even matter when what you are eating is completely devoid of nutrition?
Do you think the FDA is all that interested in our health as a nation or do you think what is really going on here is just another government power grab? What we're talking about with the proposed regulations is requiring all restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, coffee shops, etc., whose main purpose is to serve or sell food, that have over 20 locations to list the calories of their meals on menus and drive-thru locations. The ruling also applies to vending machines.
Now here's the kicker, approximately 280,000 establishments will be affected with the proposed regulations. Isn't that nice, the FDA now has even more of an inroad into the business of a huge part of the public marketplace, all because we can't be trusted with our own health. While it is important that people be informed as to what they are eating, this isn't the job of the federal government.
Even though the public certainly has a responsibility to know what they are feeding themselves we at ezHealthyDiet.com don't see the proposed FDA rules as a good thing. We already have a multitude of food regulations, more than adequate labeling that has been around for years and local inspections of food and restaurant establishments to make sure the food is served and stored in a clean manner. And if it isn't, if too many violations occur, restaurants are supposed to be shut down.
To further assist public knowledge on nutrition we also have a multitude of books such as The China Study on the market today and healthy diet sites like ours, nutrition and health sites like Mercola.com and medical experts on TV such as Dr Oz and others, but people still can't seem to understand the dangers of eating high fat, nutritionally lacking food. If all this information is available to anyone who wants it, does the FDA think their silly restaurant menu calorie labeling initiative will have any effect whatsoever?
As I stated in the beginning of this article, does anyone really need to be told that ridiculously fattening meals are bad for them? Does the fact that the 29 year old spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill recently dying need be a warning that the death burgers they serve are bad for you? No and no.
Unfortunately, some people will eat what they want, when they want to eat it, regardless of the heath implications. We have built our entire website in the hopes that people will get informed as to what good, healthy, life giving nutrition is all about, but we vehemently stand against government interference such as the proposed menu labeling guidelines. Our government has way too much power as it is, we need not give them more.
