This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Joyce Pope, Program Associate for the John Locke Foundation.
RALEIGH — When I first saw the headline, my heart sank. Panic crept into my chest. Life as I knew it was going to change, and there was nothing I could do about it.
It was the health care bill, of course. But it was a part of the health care bill I hadn’t even heard of before, and now it was too late to stop it.
I’m referring to the part in which restaurant chains with more than 20 locations are mandated to post the calorie counts of all their items on all their menus, including drive-through menus.
I’m not embarrassed to admit that some of my favorite restaurants are ones where I don’t I have to get out of my car. (OK, I’m a little embarrassed.) But when I order a Krispy Kreme doughnut, I’m aware that I’m not getting a salad. Advocates say that the mandate will encourage people to make healthier choices and help combat obesity, but the new regulation is unfair. If implemented, it will be ineffective.
It’s unfair because only certain restaurants are subject to the mandate. The qualifications are arbitrary — restaurants do not suddenly become less healthy when they open their 20th location. Although the cost of posting calories initially seems minimal, critics of the mandate have pointed out that in order to keep their menus accurate, restaurants will have to recalculate calorie counts every time an ingredient changes and update their menus accordingly, every time. And what happens to those mounting costs? They get passed along to the customer. And as any basic economics course will tell you, higher prices mean fewer customers.
Furthermore, it will be ineffective because the only thing mandated is calorie counts, and that’s not the only factor in healthy eating. Aside from the missing nutritional information (fat, cholesterol, sodium, sugars, etc.), what about what actually goes into the food? Simply counting calories does not combat obesity, and weight is not the only indication of overall health.
For instance, according to a March 21 Los Angeles Times article by Tina Susman, the New York State Department of Education has banned all homemade goods from the state’s public schools’ bake sales because those items aren’t labeled with nutritional information. This means that items like zucchini bread and, Heaven forbid, apple pie, are out, but potato chips and certain kinds of Pop Tarts are in. Advocates of the ban say that it’s a step to combat childhood obesity, but teaching children to rely on processed foods isn’t the answer.
And to add literal insult to injury, Americans are being treated as if we are no longer capable of making, and taking responsibility for, our decisions, but this is nothing new from this administration. I say we celebrate our freedom while we still have it. Eat a doughnut, maybe two. I won’t tell. …