The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

No: Menus should not display nutritional information

Posting charts of nutrition information in restaurants is unnecessary and would only burden restaurants and customers.

Calories come from all sorts of different nutrients and some foods are worth the extra calories because the oils and fats (such as those in nuts and fish) are beneficial.

Not all fatty foods are made up of creamy sauces, batter and grease. If all nutritional facts for a food establishment’s menu were made available, it would be far too much trouble for most customers to bother reading.

Nutritional content would either have to be posted where diners could read it at their tables, or it would be implemented into the menu itself.

All of that information would read like an encyclopedia.

The information on the back of a can of peas is enough to strain the interest and attention span of most.

On the other hand, the menu at Denny’s would be three inches thick if the complete nutrition information was included there.

Most diners don’t want to pore over their Grand Slam trying to make sense of what they’re looking at for half an hour.

It would be a total waste of ink, at worst, that would ruin the aesthetics of the restaurant or their menu.

Currently, many establishments have a heart-healthy or “light” section included in their menu.

These foods may be exactly like the more calorie-rich items on the menu except they have problem ingredients such as butter, mayonnaise, breading, or cheese substituted or removed.

The items are all grouped together and labeled clearly and there is no research involved for the hungry. It even reflects better on the restaurant for taking the effort out of eating well.

Posting nutrition information would affect restaurants adversely not by causing customers to choose some menu items over others, it would just make it so inconvenient to do so that customers would go elsewhere.

If one knows what is in eggs benedict, choosing to order extra hollandaise sauce is their choice and they will have to deal with their own caloric intake.

Armed with nutritional education, diners can decide what their body needs.

Taking ownership of one’s nutrition is the true path to health.

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