New Passed Law McDonalds Goin Down

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Who eats McDonalds for its nurtritional value?

No, they are going to ensure consumers can access the information on which to make an informed choice. Such choices are how capitalism works evidently. Producers compete to produce products that best fit the preferences of consumers and consumers choose according to their preferences, thus the products that best meet consumer preference continue to be offered and those that do not change or loose profitability and cease to be made. All this only works if consumers have access to information that is relevant to them.

You might think health nutritionally conscious people never eat at McDonalds, but judging by the introduction of healthier options and now even a "Weight Watchers" menu currently being trialled, it seems that McDonalds at least is not entirely convinced of that.

Most of the fast food joints in my area already do this, it hasn't affected their business. I'm concerned about the impact on smaller chains, having to send every menu item off to a lab to have the calorie content analyzed can be pretty expensive, and considering the razor thin margins some of these places operate on, the financial burden could be considerable.

This reminds me of something me and my friends did once. I downloaded one of those nutrition fact sheets online and printed it. The three of us went to McDonald's and while customers ordered food, one of us listed off the calories to me, where I added them up on my handy calc, and she then told the costumers how much they were about to eat, and the average amount of time it takes to burn it off. People got angry at us, but not one thought twice about eating it. We eventually gave up. Nobody who cares what they put in their bodies will eat there, so the rest won't be bothered by numbers. Even though I know I eat 800 Calories when I eat there, I still don't care. This law won't do anything.

The will have low calorie offerings. I seriously doubt they will go out of business.

ruveyn

I'm surprised at your response. I'm Diabetic Type 2 and I *must* know what I'm putting in my mouth. Wouldn't all of us eating per doctors' orders stampede to a safe place to eat out? Over time, perhaps, the fast-food places could keep what they already doing but *add* healthy food. It's not either/or, it's and/and.

And I really don't understand why you'd call it government interference. How do we know we're not eating chopped baby seal? Of course I want to know what I'm eating - don't you?

The menus with contents listed will probably be on-line, if we need to check before we go.

Not sure who you're responding to, but I'll take a crack at it:

If you have a medical condition, it's your responsibility to make sure that you're eating the proper food, not the restaurant industry's.

They already are adding healthier options, Fast Food Nation and Supersize Me probably had more influence there than any amount of legislation.

It is government interference, there are already strict guidelines concerning food and restaurant supply chain hygiene and integrity, this only concerns nutritional information which should be the responsibility of the buyer if they are concerned about it.

Hope that clears things up.

Maccas already has nutrition info posted online.

My friend who was a diabetic had this book. In it was the calorie/sodium/bunch of other crap that I don't care about information so he knew how much insulin to take after eating. My Dad got a copy of it too so he could see how much everything was fatting him up when he was on a diet. If I could remember what it's called, I'd tell you, but I'm sure Amazon and B&N carry it no problem.

It was fat as heck though, only half the size height wise as your average paper back but real thick, almost 1,000 pages. Reminded me of the PDR.

WOW! I take it back - here's MacDonald's menu with nutrition listings

MacDonalds Menu & Nutrition Calculator

At first I thought the nutrition information was hard to rread, but then I noticed a small white button to click on, and up popped nutrition readings the way I'm used to seeing them.

*And* they have some diabetic offerings, which I shall have to check out.

Thanks for calling me on that

Likely won't change my avoidance of McDo's.

Which is why making this information accessible is a prudent idea. It is not possible to take responsibility for eating the right food if it is not possible to ascertain the nutritional content of food.
I am a bit surprised that people would be against informed consumers. The entire basis of capitalism as a plausible system of distribution relies on informed consumers...

pandd wrote:

Capitalism and government don’t go well together. My point isn’t that consumers have no right to know what they’re eating, they certainly do.
My issue is with it being a matter of federal government intervention (any government, really).
If a restaurant doesn’t provide this data on their own and you just have to know then don’t eat there.
Don’t look for government to take care of everything.

I eat at those places once in a while, too, but I do it with the knowledge that most of it is not very healthy.
I take the risk upon myself without big brother holding my hand.


Claradoon wrote:


Are there health risks in eating chopped baby seal?

Too much fat in it maybe………….

I agree. The great thing is that you have a choice: If a restaurant doesn't provide the service you want, go to a different one. While I certainly support some regulation (e.g. regarding hygiene), I think this is unnecessary. Imagine you are a gentlemen at a fine restaurant:

"Good sir, what is in this most scrumptious burger?"

"My good man, I'm afraid that is a company secret."

"Why, then I will no longer frequent your eating establishment! Good day to you, sir!"

Then, because no company likes losing customers, they will freely provide the information because it's good for business. Capitalism saves the day! Now obviously several large chains of restaurants could conspire to not provide this information, but that's not happening at the moment. If there's no problem, there's no regulation required.

Nonsense; the likelihood of an environment capable of supporting capitalism without government is so remote as to be implausible.


That is no solution as the easiest thing for those selling the product is to not supply the information which limits consumer choice. The best thing for all involved is for the businesses to do well while consumers make informed choice and this is best achieved by providing the information at point of sale. If the intervention were entirely unnecessary, this could only be because the information is already supplied at point of sale, but it's not.


Maybe you do it with the assumption that it is not healthy, but unless you take the trouble and effort on board yourself, you do it without being informed as to which of the choices offered is the least or most healthy. In fact McDonalds where I live offers a variety of foods that are quite appropriate as part of a healthy balanced diet, and a variety of foods that so far as I can tell, do not really have a place in a consistently balanced healthy diet. Most people who walk in the door of McDonalds do not have firm information about which is which and sometimes these things can be quite deceptive as much food is processed and so may not fit with "intuitition" in respect of how much fat, salt and carbs are contained within a particular food.

The value of capitalism as a means of distribution relies on the assumption that the consumer choices people make are consistent with their preferences but choices made in ignorance will only be so by virtue of luck. I do not think our entire economic system should be premised on hoping we all get lucky every time we make a purchase.

Which is entirely unpractical in the event that no restaurant chooses to do this. Frankly I do not see why you make an exception for hygiene. We could rely on restaurants to uphold hygiene standards, or eat somewhere else as easily as we can rely on them to supply accurate information about the nutritional content of their food, or eat somewhere else.

GoodSir: I got sick from your food last time I came here
Restaurant Owner: Put up with it or eat elsewhere...
GoodSir: Very well I shall

See, no need for hygiene regulation either....