Restaurants feel calorie crunch

“It’s not easy to do,” said New York State Restaurant Association (NYSRA) Executive Vice President Chuck Hunt, discussing a city-wide regulation that would require restaurants with 15 or more national locations to post calorie information on their menus or menu boards.
“It’s going to be very difficult, particularly where you have so many items being offered,” Hunt said, explaining that places like Dunkin’ Donuts are starting to sell flatbread pizzas.
NYSRA received a temporary stay in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals early on the evening of Wednesday, April 23, and a panel of judges will hear argument from both sides on Tuesday, April 29. Should the regulation go into effect, the city would not start issuing fines until June. Hunt and many of his members are hoping the regulation doesn’t get that far.
NYSRA encourages its members to provide nutrition facts, Hunt said, but the association believes individual restaurants should be able to make their own decisions about how to convey that information.
Hunt pointed out that chain restaurants have displayed nutrition information on wall posters, tray liners, food wrappers, flyers, web sites and computer kiosks.
Alfonzo Brown thinks he knows why the NYSRA and some of its members are dragging their feet. Posting calorie information on menu boards would be tantamount to chain restaurants spotlighting their unhealthy items, he explained.
“They don’t want people to know stuff like that,” said Brown, a vegetarian who was heading into the McDonald’s on Linden Boulevard at Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica - for a cup of coffee, and only coffee, he was quick to explain.
As a minister, Brown gives out fresh produce and other groceries to 600 people a week. He remembers when the McDonald’s at Linden and Sutphin was a greenhouse. Far from its greener days, the eatery is now, in Brown’s opinion, a magnet for the lower class looking for an affordable bite.
“You can come into some of the lower class neighborhoods and people don’t really care [about nutritional content],” said Brown, who eats an affordable lunch of rice and beans every day.
Other neighborhoods, meanwhile, are very health conscious, he added.
“It’s something you can’t change,” Brown exclaimed.
However, the city plans to change the way people order food and, in so doing, alter their expanding waistlines with a regulation that would affect 10 percent of citywide eateries.
While some establishments, including Starbucks, Quiznos, and Subway are compliant, others like McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC are holding out, hoping for a “full” stay in appellate court, according to published reports.
Hunt explained that NYSRA’s stance is not about denying customers important information or about preserving business.
“There may be an initial decrease in sales just because of the novelty of it, but frankly, in the long run I don’t think it’s going to have any long-term effect,” Hunt imagined.
But those like Mattjis Limberger, who admitted he is not aware of the recommended daily dose of calories, thinks the regulation would have a big impact.
Having just purchased an Angus burger - the burger was not listed alongside other menu selections and their corresponding nutritional information on McDonald’s web site - Limberger knew he could have opted for something healthier.
“It’s bad,” he cautioned with a smile, his mouth seemingly watering.
Limberger said he would probably have gone with a lower calorie item if those numbers had been on the menu board.
At a Starbucks on Cross Bay Boulevard in Howard Beach, where food items were already paired up with their respective calorie labels, customers were pleased with the idea of the mandate.
“I think it’s going to shock the general population and make them realize what’s contributing to them growing sideways,” said Dianne Keitel.
“I think it’s long overdue and we need to see more of it,” said a woman who thought Starbucks’ beverages should also fall under the regulation (Hunt confirmed that drinks would also be subject to the regulation).
Lynell Holmes, at the Linden Boulevard McDonald’s, was indifferent to the situation.
“It doesn’t matter to me. I eat it regardless, you know?” He said with a shrug of his shoulders.
Holmes quickly offered up a defense, however.
“I don’t eat McDonald’s everyday, you know what I’m saying? But it [calorie information] would matter to other people.”
In Brown’s opinion, the city’s attempt to combat obesity is valiant and vital.
“They need to be educated,” he said of the unhealthy masses.
Brown understands, though, that a few numbers on a menu - be they in the double, triple, or quadruple digits - aren’t the be-all and end-all.
“Some people just don’t want to be educated,” he said.