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The Calorie Count: NYC
Ah New York. Anne is there right now. She’s probably eating as we speak. Maybe at our favorite dumpling house on Eldridge Street. Or at the nouveau Mac and Cheese restaurant S’Mac. Or maybe that wicked sushi restaurant our friend Katie found...or cupcakes at the Magnolia bakery (though not really as good as cracked up to be, still v. tasty)...or maybe she’s found some amazing taqueria and is downing delicious pulled pork tacos.
Can you tell I’m hungry?
Anyways. If any of those restaurants she visits are parts of national chains, she will soon (Saturday) have the opportunity to check the calorie count of all her foods conveniently in the store before ordering/purchasing. For New York, ever the health maverick - what with it’s Big City smoking ban and trans fat ban - is trying to force all restaurants with at least 15 chains nationwide to display calorie counts on menus. The restaurants aren’t liking it and there’s been some legal rigmarole over when the requirement is going into action but some stores have started doing it anyways - like Starbucks.
So yes, you can finally see exactly how many calories you save by trying the gummy low fat muffin compared to its oil-infested neighbor.
The question remains whether it will change people’s eating habits and, erm, actually combat obesity as argued by the lawyers upholding the regulation against challenges from the New York Restaurant Association.
Personally, I’d like to see this kind of calorie-labeling trend take off.......and push restaurants into offering slightly healthier options and, MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY, smaller portion sizes. Many obesity researchers and eating psychology experiments suggest that our obesity crisis is owes much gratitude to the inflation of standard meal sizes.
This is something that restaurants could easily tackle. For example, the Starbucks Oat Fudge bar (so delicious...have you had one?) weighs in at 440 calories. But half of one would suffice beautifully. I mean, I kind of feel ill eating a whole one (this does not stop me - curse of fat gene). One could offer a similar treatment to those cookies and scones and loaf slices that are approximately the size of my head.
It’s a great business model: they could offer half the amount of food, but drop the price by just 20% and display an attractively low calorie count. Nice. I think we’re on to something here.....
Comments
ooh ooh, anne, you have to stop by the doughtnut plant (http://www.doughnutplant.com/). They have this extremely chocolatey doughy thing, and their PB&J is also good. Heck, everything is good. We went there last week and loved it!
Um..it was...um...off Bleeker-ish at the v. lower edge of the West Village? Oops? Right beside this kind of surf-themed sandwich place (where I later had a great grilled cheese).
Sorry for the vagueitude. You know how you never pay any attention when someone else is taking you? Or how you (me) get totally lost in the West Village all the time anyways?
It wouldn’t be Sushi Mambo would it? That’s my best google guess…
http://www.sushimambo.com/index.php
Nope. It was tiny. V. Tiny. I just google mapped for sushi in the area and nothing looks right. I’ll email our NYC Katie.
Oh dear. You are so right. I am eating eating eating. And thankfully we’ve been visiting smaller joints that don’t have to disclose their calories. This is a major blessing.
Perhaps this new law will make it so that people avoid the chains simply to stay ignorant about what they’re eating. That would be good too right?
Anne (with a stretched belly. And Sara, I am SO going to the donut joint. You are a goddess for sending me there)
Ha ha! Katie has replied. Sushi restaurant was Kirara - 33 Carmine St.
Fabulous! Just in time, too: I leave on Wednesday.
Great! I can’t for the life of me remember what we ordered. Enjoy!
yellowfin sashimi with pear and pomegranate…
Oh, that does sound good. Can’t wait!
It’s great news to hear restaurants have to share nutrition information, but they don’t always post their full menu. It’s amazing how hard restaurant chains are fighting to hide their nutrition information. I wanted to share a new service my company just launched called ‘Wellternatives’ that lets people find nutrition info for thousands of chain restaurants for free – right from their cell phone or on the web. It also makes recommendations for a healthier alternative, hence the name… Wellternatives. If restaurants aren’t going to post their nutrition info, we figured we’d do what we could to give people instant access to the info from anywhere. Would love to hear what you think of it! Maija
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I’m going to NYC next week so thanks for the heads up on the Mac N Cheese place. Where’s that ‘wicked sushi restaurant’ of which you speak? Hyperlink pleeeeease.