Restaurant customers may be indulging in meals that far exceed the recommended daily intake of salt, fats, calories and other ingredients that could be detrimental to their health.
That’s the recent message from an Ottawa-based advocacy group that says Canada’s restaurants are doing their patrons a grave disservice by keeping nutritional facts off their menus.
The Centre for Science in the Public Interest rightfully wants that changed. It’s urging all levels of government to make it mandatory for eateries to include on menus the dietary details “so often kept under wraps.”
Government regulations make it mandatory for the confectionery and supermarket industries to include a nutritional list on some of their products. Processed foods, deli items, candy bars, pop and potato chips, to mention just a few, are regulated. The information allows consumers to make informed choices.
But eateries are exempt even though a fifth of Canadian’s weekly food intake comes from restaurants.
A basic breakdown of calories and sodium on a restaurant menu could go a long way in battling the rising tide in obesity in Canada, says the centre.
The centre’s findings, in a 90-page report called Writing on the Wall, wants rules forcing restaurants to inform patrons what’s in food served. Those on a restricted diet, or those dedicated to a healthy lifestyle, are entitled to know these things.
The CSPI reports that many menu offerings in eateries contain two and three times the recommended daily calories and sodium amounts an adult should ingest. Some servings, it says, have up to two days worth of sodium in one serving.
Nutritional information might be available to restaurant customers, says the CSPI, if they actively seek it out. But realistically, who is about to throw a wrench into the mood of a relaxing evening, sipping on a glass of one’s favourite beverage, by first asking the table attendant for nutritional information?
“It’s just not acceptable,” says Bill Jeffery, CSPI’s national co-ordinator, who wants that information on the menu. “You need that information readily apparent at the point where you’re making the decision, and having to jump through hoops to get that information just means that fewer people are going to (make such enquiries).”
Jeffery wants restaurants to disclose a calorie total next to all items and put a high-sodium flag on menus where appropriate. He also says a notice at the bottom of the menu stating the recommended daily targets of calories and salt would help diners make their choices.
And why not? A bag of potato chips has that information.
But Joyce Reynolds of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, says menus are not the place to display that information. There’s not enough room for all those facts, says Reynolds. “There’s no end to the number of pieces of information that would be a nice-to-have on the menu, but it’s not possible.”
Healthy eating is paramount if we want to address health-care costs.
Jeffery says eateries are loath to make such information accessible for fear of losing business.
But there is an alternative: restaurants could simply offer the necessary information, and provide healthy food in the bargain.
And then they could protect their businesses and Canadians can protect their health.
Rick Zemanek is an Advocate editor.