We Californians pushed for a major change in restaurants all over the state to provide nutritional information about the food items they provide. Our efforts forced, “restaurants with 20 or more locations in California [to] provide brochures at the point of purchase with number of calories, grams of saturated fat, grams of carbohydrates and milligrams of sodium for all standard menu items (Behrens 2009).” Because this was just recently made mandatory of restaurants, there is no evidence to whether this has actually helped with people making healthier choices or affecting obesity but, personally there have been several occasions where I have chosen a healthier item on a menu solely because this nutritional information was provided. I know there are many people out there who have also made a healthier decision based on this information due to my own personal experiences. Even if the number of people who do not consider this information during their decision making process of what item to order, it is a relief to see that we are making an effort to fight this growing problem.
The fast food industry has made attempts to provide healthier options on their menus as well. Taco bell introduced their own “fresco menu,” also known as the “Drive-Thru diet,” where there are seven items to choose from that are fewer in calories, fat and sodium as oppose to other menu items. Wendy’s restaurant chain added orange slices as a side dish option for their meals as wells as a salad line which has fat free options for dressings to help give customers a healthier option. At Wendy’s, “A side salad without dressing has only 60 calories. A Caesar side salad with no dressing has only 110 calories. The Deluxe Garden Salad also has only 110 calories (Barlow 2010).” Making these options available give the customer the discretion of whether to eat healthier or not. It’s encouraging to see these companies starting to implement healthier options on their menus; We American’s can use all the help we can get.
Some communities have volunteer groups that push for change in their neighborhoods regarding obesity. Healthy Kids Healthy Communities is a volunteer group in Baldwin Park California who has made outstanding efforts battling obesity. This group pushed for a ban on fast food windows and since this ban was implemented, not a single fast food restaurant has opened in the city (CBS). This group pushed and succeeded in having many stores carry fresh produce that never carried it, and they also flag healthy foods for shoppers. This group made salad bars in schools a staple and 100 minutes per week of physical education mandatory (CBS). With all this in a five year period at one school in particular, 135 kids are no longer overweight. This group has made many good changes for their community and shows great success.
With obesity as problematic as it is today, people are starting to acknowledge the problem and are making changes. We do not have all the support we need to tackle this growing epidemic but it is motivating to see organizations like this putting in valuable effort. If we continue to push for healthier items in fast food restaurants, push for our kids to receive the right amount of physical education in their schools, push for stores to carry fresh produce and make schools provide healthier options for our children, we will definitely see the change with obesity in our future.
REFERENCES
Barlow, Jackie. 1/30/2010. “Wendy’s Nutrition Facts.” Bright Hub.
http://www.brighthub.com/health/diet-nutrition/articles/62900.aspx.
12/3/2010
Behrens, Zach. 6/26/09. “17,000 Restaurants Must Provide Nutritional Info on July 1st.” Hollywood Laist. <http://laist.com/2009/06/26/17000_restaurants_must_provide_nutr.php>.
12/3/2010.
CBS News. 1/7/2010. “Where America Stands On Obesity.” Video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM-rZm-ilFA&feature=player_embedded#!.
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