All Restaurants Requested to Post Calorie Info on Menus

    TUCSON, AZ, October 09, 2008 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The last year has been unprecedented for restaurants in the United States in regards to food costs. For example, both the price of corn and wheat more than tripled from the beginning of 2006 to the spring of 2008, but corn has recently lowered to approx double its 2006 value and wheat to 1.5 times its 2006 value (www.mgex.com). One main reason for this is the rise in cost in diesel fuel due to oil prices.

So far, in general, restaurants have not raised their prices in order to keep customers returning and consuming their products. Some restaurants like Olive Garden and Red Lobster have begun to raise prices though to stay profitable (Article on price increases). Others are likely to raise prices as well so they do not face bankruptcy like Benningan's and Steak and Ale (Article on Bankrupting Restaurants).

New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has passed a regulation that requires restaurants to post calorie info beside prices on their menus if they have their nutritional info available to the public. The regulation has been upheld by a Federal Appeals Court (Article on NYC regulation).

In Tucson, approximately 10% of the city's restaurants have their nutritional info available online. One reason many restaurants do not even have the info available is that acquiring the information used to be very costly. Most nutritional analysis companies charge around $250 per item. Due to the many menu items most restaurants have, it could potentially cost a business over $20,000 to have their products analyzed. Many people are unaware though that the USDA has a free nutritional database which includes tens of thousands of ingredients at www.nutrition.gov.

The Pen and Paper Diet enables any literate adult to lose weight and then maintain it while they continue to consume the types of foods they enjoy and maintain their current activity level if they choose. The book is based on the idea of having a personal daily calorie budget. Once a person learns the skill of controlling his or her weight using math in as little as 3 minutes a day, a person can focus on eating more healthy and exercising more.

The author of the book, Michael Dow, sent a letter to all of the restaurants in Tucson, Arizona in mid July 2008 informing them of the USDA's database and requesting they post calorie info on their menus. Dow used yellowpages.com and sent letters to businesses listed under the Restaurant section. The cost to the restaurant would simply be the time of one of the chefs using the USDA's database assuming new menus are being planned. By posting calorie info, consumers can make informed choices, the obesity epidemic could take a significant hit, and some health conscious consumers could come back into the marketplace for certain restaurants since they could still manage their weight by tracking calorie consumption.

Dow says one of the main reasons he sent the letters was for his family. "My wife and I feel we are eating blindly when we go to restaurants we like that don't have any nutritional info available. A calorie budget is such a simple way to manage one's weight that posting calorie info only seems the right thing to do for restaurants since the cost is minimal using the USDA's website and many people could begin taking control of their weight and changing their health for the better."

For more information, visit www.ThePenAndPaperDiet.com.

About Dow Creative Enterprises, LLC

Dow Creative Enterprises, LLC is a book and website publishing company. For further information, please email [email protected].

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