some lou. restaurants posting caloric information signs

My Doctor put me on the complete heart healthy nazi diet a month ago (she didn't call it that as she's German but.. you know what I mean). It's worked quite well, I've lost a ton of weight seemingly effortlessly, blood values have gotten much better. The problem is, having thoroughly researched what I can eat, I find that restaurant food is basically off limits. It just seems to me that even "quality" restaurants with "real" food are serving up more fat and salt than what I can allow myself.

*le sigh*

Butter, bacon, and salt make almost everything better.

I went in to J.Gumbo's 4th St. location a few weeks ago and found that they have posted the calorie information for their menu as well. I personally appreciate the information. Even I decide to have a high calorie meal, this information helps me plan the day accordingly.

http://www.cyberounds.com/content/news/nutrition/0804/caloriecounts.html

I heard a report about this report on NPR recently. The study was published in the Journal of the AMA, so I don't take it lightly. I guess some information is better than no information, but that's being generous on my part.

Edit to add: I'm suspicious of such laws (as in the 2014 federal mandate) when there seems to be more of a motive to get information out there ("you must include calorie counts!") than installing a system to make sure the information is accurate.

Taken from an email from the health dept.:

Healthy Hometown Menu Labeling Initiative Attracts Restaurants Across Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (September 7, 2011) Restaurants across Louisville are becoming Healthy Hometown restaurants by posting calorie counts on their menus. To date 29 restaurants at 46 locations throughout the city have signed up to take advantage of the voluntary menu labeling initiative.

Establishments who sign on to become Healthy Hometown restaurants get technical assistance from chefs and dietitians to analyze recipes as well as financial assistance to reprint menus and menu boards. In return the restaurants list the calorie count of each item next to the price on their menus and menu boards. Healthy Hometown restaurants also display the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommended daily allowance for calories, fat and sodium and make other nutritional information available upon request.

Funds are provided from the $7.9 federal Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant that Louisville was awarded last year to further the work of the Mayor’s Healthy Hometown Movement.

“The federal law will soon require menu labeling by national chain restaurants with 20 or more locations,” said Mayor Greg Fischer. “The Louisville Healthy Hometown Restaurant menu labeling initiative is aimed at helping our smaller local restaurants remain competitive while giving their customers the necessary information to make healthier choices when dining out.”

“The menu labeling initiative is an important component of our strategy to reverse obesity trends and to help make the healthy choice the easy choice here in Louisville,” said Metro Public Health and Wellness Director Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt. “Research tells us that families eat out an average of four times per week and adults and children consume about one-third of their calories from restaurants. Posting calorie information on restaurant menus helps to arm our citizens in the fight against obesity.”

“We give our customers much more nutrition information than they’ve ever had before by becoming a Healthy Hometown Restaurant,” said Dan Huckestein, owner and general manager of Yang Kee Noodle in the Oxmoor Center. “We believe our customers want as much information as possible before making their menu selections,” said Huckestein.

A national study released in July by the Trust for America’s Health of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sites the Louisville menu labeling initiative as one of the ways communities are fighting national trends in obesity.

Any restaurant in Louisville with fewer than 20 locations may take advantage of the financial help and free technical assistance.

We are proud to be a member of the Hometown Healthy Restaurant initiative! When we were asked to be a part of this program we jumped at the chance! We post our calorie counts on all of our regular menu items and were really pleasantly surprised to find out that most of our meals have equal or fewer calories than a lot of single items (i.e. one bacon cheeseburger) at so many fast food places. Our calorie counts include the bread and the rice as well, so you know exactly what your entire meal (minus the drink!) totals up to. When most of your food is served on a bed of rice, you expect the calorie count to go through the roof!

This is the best restaurant news I've heard in 20 years! On a post a little while ago I noted how Panera Bread had joined Subway in our neighborhood offering this BIG strategic advantage in attracting business from customers like me. Nobody in particular is the target of this comment, but when I eat at places like Zen Garden (now comes Heart & Soy / Roots) it makes me suspect a lot of kitchens try to compensate for a lack of skill by cramming dishes full of as many calories as possible. Hopefully we'll see a lot more thin crust pizzas with a third as much cheese, normal human portioned burgers, etc. Here's the full list from today's C-J, of course Zen Tea House is gone. Maybe Heart & Soy / Roots will do it as well...

PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS

» 60 West Bistro & Martini Bar

» Annie’s Pizza

» Big Burger

» Bristol Bar and Grille

» Chicago Gyros

» Choices Yogurt Bar

» City Cafe

» Dooley’s Bagels & Deli

» Gelato Gilberto

» J. Gumbo’s

» Joe’s Older Than Dirt

» Life Bar

» Lonnie’s Best Taste of Chicago

» Luigi’s Pizzeria

» Lyon’s Smoothies & More

» Morels Vegan Food Truck

» Morris’ Deli

» Muscle Monkey Grill

» Nancy’s Bagel Grounds

» Queenie’s Soul Cuisine

» Ramsi’s

» Shiraz Mediterranean Grill

» Smoothie Q

» Soupy’s

» The Catering Company

» Two Chicks & A Gourmet Box

» Yang Kee Noodle

» Zen Garden

» Zen Tea House

[Robin Garr]

Here's the full list

Interesting to note that very few/none of the more "serious" local indies are on the list. I wonder if there's a backstory on that.

Here's the full list

Interesting to note that very few/none of the more "serious" local indies are on the list. I wonder if there's a backstory on that.

Interesting observation. Actually, with a couple of exceptions most of these are not really formal type restaurants, they lean towards the quick food side of the business.

Interesting to note that very few/none of the more "serious" local indies are on the list. I wonder if there's a backstory on that.

The optimistic view is the program is new enough that many local indies who care about their customers, the community and our health just haven't jumped on quite yet.

Another possibility is they have something to hide. I've used a food scale and nutrition references at home for enough years I'm pretty sure some places are serving 2000+ calorie meals. Portion sizes are out of control due to the appeal to presumed customer stupidity that more is better. Got news for eateries like that - I don't care to pay you to put a big part of my meal in a garbage can. I'm not going to eat it all just because it is on my plate. I'm not a contestant on "Man v. Food". I like to watch it sometimes, as well as "Cops" but I don't want to be on that show, either. Lunch tomorrow? OK. How about you adjust portion size / price and if we want the same thing for lunch tomorrow we can order a second one to go?

While not applicable everywhere, one of the first things that occurred to me is this is a perfect opportunity for the astute proprietor to institute a cool thing we see in Europe, the selling of dishes in increments of 100 grams. That's about 3.5 oz. Sane portions, sane calories, sane price. The spread of the trend of tapas or small plates is along these lines. Anyplace that does that should jump at the chance to be a part of this program.

This is the perfect opportunity for investigative reporting by our local LEO. I mean, it's not like anybody else is going to do it. Here's your assignment LEO: Buy carry out meals from a variety of local indies who are not part of the glasnost program, get lab analyses of the calories and publish them with a big splashy cover story! And don't worry about nailing some of your advertisers - it's not like they have another print alternative that many people read.

[Robin Garr]

Got news for eateries like that - I don't care to pay you to put a big part of my meal in a garbage can. I'm not going to eat it all just because it is on my plate.

Don't you do the doggie bag thing, though, Lonnie? We use it aggressively and sometimes get two or even three meals out of a restaurant investment. Seems like a sane approach to supersizing, to me. Let them supersize the meal but not my tummy.

Interesting to note that very few/none of the more "serious" local indies are on the list. I wonder if there's a backstory on that.

Another possibility is they have something to hide.

One thing many of the participating and not-participating restaurants have to hide is their inability to standardize portion size. Recently ate at one of the restaurants on the above list with a friend. He easily received 2.5 fries for every fry I received (seeing as I am not much of a fry eater, I wasn't bothered at the time by this). But, given that published caloric information is based on a standard serving size, the value of such information is considerably decreased without standard portions.

As someone who counts carbs, my favorite trick to play on myself is to measure out a standard ice cream serving (usually 1/2 a cup), then add a "little" more, but only count the 18 carbs from the 1/2 cup portion. Then I act surprised when my blood sugar is not right a few hours later.

In regards to the study I mentioned above, the scientists found irregular portion sizes and recipes as major reasons for the caloric discrepancies. IIRC, a serving bought at Chipotle as part of the study was 200-and-something calories off. When the food is made to order on an assembly line by low-invested (and low-paid) help, this result is not surprising.

Last time I was in town I went to an indie place which is very well liked on this forum. I could see in the kitchen from where I was sitting. I had ordered something which came with thin cut pommes frites. I watched the cook toss them in one of those aluminum bowls with two ginormous pinches of salt. Like five finger pinches. More like "grabs". I' thinking it was three Big Macs worth of sodium. Food tasted great though.

[Robin Garr]

Last time I was in town I went to an indie place which is very well liked on this forum. I could see in the kitchen from where I was sitting. I had ordered something which came with thin cut pommes frites. I watched the cook toss them in one of those aluminum bowls with two ginormous pinches of salt. Like five finger pinches. More like "grabs". I' thinking it was three Big Macs worth of sodium. Food tasted great though.

In fairness, the technique you describe leaves a lot of salt in the bowl.

Portioning is a big challenge. Our "standard portion" is realistically an average that can vary as much as 2oz. Calorically speaking, that can make an impact, but on the whole we work very hard to get it right and stay consistent. And we stress this to our employees, not just for the diners sake, but to keep control of our food costs as well.

Side note, despite the general attitude here, I am still shocked by the number of people who eat at our restaurants and then remark that the portion was a bit too small!!!