h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ahh shoot! A dun gone broked the law again!

i should have peeled ma peepers n read da last thread, whooo wee!

so it should be the seat manufacturers that get sued.

Hey look, the Food Standards Agency actually agree with me! They are suggesting that food retailers such as restaurants and fast-food places should provide the customer with fat and calorie content information.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2397089.stm

Shame they say it will take legislation at the EU level though, guess we won't see it for a long time.

Whilst I can see how this is achievable for fast food joints (burger bars, pizza parlours etc.) that utilise the same ingredients all the time and use an almost production like method to prepare and cook them, I do think it will be incredibly difficult for restaurants to do so, particularly where they are utilising fresh seasonal ingredients etc and they change their menus on a daily/weekly basis.

The worst case scenario of these proposals is that a lot of small restaurants will be forced out of business becuase of the associated costs of getting calorific & nutritional constituent analysis done on their menus.

At some point common sense must prevail - the main argument surely is to get those outlets that make explicit &/or implicit claims about the nutritional quality of their produce to back it up with a proper analysis. Given that the majority of restaurants make no such claims about their produce .....................

I'd like it if restaurants that have very variable menus just gave some sort of indication of the lardiness of their food, just high medium and low would do me, that would be easy enough to achieve with a standard calorie chart. If it is made clear what high medium and low mean in terms of *that particular restaurant* then that should be workable.

While it is obvious that the deep fried cheese followed by red meat in pastry with a cream-based sauce followed by chocolate anything is not going to be good for your health, sometimes healthy-sounding meals turn up smothered in butter sauces or just have a hidden high fat content. An indication would help me to pick things from the low end of the scale rather than the high end (usually, I'm not a saint all the time ).

k hoping that one day there will be low fat alternatives marked on menus, just like there are vegetarian alternatives...

"Lawsuit claims McDonald's burgers and fries are making kids fat":
http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/11/21/fast.food.lawsuit.ap/index.html

I do believe it's all starting to go sour for the Clown;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,844974,00.html

Wouldn't it be lovely?

I always thought he was creepy anyway...

Had a trip to a Health Spa last weekend and the restaurant there had exactly the kind of menu I ws describing above - some of the meals were identified as 'Light Diet' which was defined as suitable for those on a reduced fat and calorie diet. There were other lardier options on the menu too, which looked lovely, but the diet meals wer delicious and filling - and all it took was some thought from the chef.

Health spas rock btw.



k

What particularly bothered me in light of the links above from ste & Blues was the sheer bare faced hypochrisy of Maccy D's.

On the one hand a class action suit alledging that their product makes kids fat and on the other they are promoting World Childrens Day (a TM of MacDonald's) by asking people NOT to give money but to eat a Maccy D's.

Does their insensitivity know no bounds.

I know I was nealy sick when I heard the stuff about world childrens day (tm)

Just thought I'd resurrect this as in case anyone hasn't heard the case was dismissed by a federal judge in the US yesterday.

Thought you might like to know.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2685707.stm

Yeah, I heard about that. Shame.

Tsk. Well, it was always going to happen, wasn't it.

On the other hand:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2688665.stm

Rejoice! I shall join in a cross-thread victory dance.

Are you down at the fact that the case got thrown out or at the fact that McD won't lose money in the case (I dislike the reastraunt, subway and wendy's are far superior, and I am much to lazy to read backlog)

RMF