Count Calories at your Favorite Restaurant

March 10, 2007

By Heather Sells

CBN News

February 27, 2007

CBNNews.com - The menus at your favorite restaurant may be missing

something.

There's a new push to require calorie counts and other nutritional

information to be clearly listed for every customer to see.

But menus can be minefields.

Restaurants are packing a lot more calories into some of their most

popular menu items.

Guess how many are in UNO Chicago's pizza skins.

Try 2,060 calories!

That's the same as eating 19 scoops of ice cream!

Even something that sounds somewhat healthy, like Ruby Tuesday's

pasta dish with broccoli, chicken and cheese, is not.

Just one plate of this has 2,100 calories.

You could eat two sirloin steaks, two loaded baked potatoes and two

Caesar salads for the same amount of calories.

Both restaurants say they're not trying to keep calorie counts

secret and that nutrition information is available in their lobbies.

" People will understand that you cannot provide all the necessary

information on a menu that the consumer needs, " Frank Guidara, CEO,

Uno Chicago Grill said.

But the Center for Science in the Public Interest wants customers to

see that information, when they order.

" I think if we had calorie labeling on menus in restaurants, you'd

find a lot more healthy choices being offered at restaurants in the

same way you do in supermarkets, " Jayne Hurley said. Hurley works

for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The group is pushing for city, state and federal laws that would

require nutrition information on chain restaurant menus.

" I think people aren't going to ask for the healthier choices unless

they know how bad the food is that's being offered on the menu, "

Hurley said.

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