The ingredients, they are a-changin': Panda Express' new "Wok Smart" dishes are all 250 calories or fewer per serving. Photo by John Gibbins. | Heaping Helpings
By Peter Rowe
A little knowledge can be a painful thing. One August night, April McCafferty stopped at McDonald's for a favorite snack, French fries dipped in Ranch dressing.
Unless you live in a cave -- and McCafferty lives above ground in Southern California -- you know that fries aren't health food. This night, though, she learned a horrifying fact. That ranch packet? It oozed with 30 percent more fat than the fries.
"I'm never eating that again!" she said.
Here's another shocker: that disturbing fact didn't come from an anti-fast food crusader. Instead, it came from McDonald's. Since July 1, state law has required restaurant chains to provide basic nutritional information -- calorie, carbohydrate, saturated fat and sodium contents -- on their food and drink.
Overnight, diners were inundated with data and surprises. For instance, the California Pizza Kitchen's Waldorf Chicken Salad packs more calories (1,644) than seven slices of its Sweet & Spicy Italian Sausage Pizza (1,463).
And now we know why dieticians despair of the Double Guacamole Bacon Burger at Carl's Jr. The former recommend adults consume around 2,000 calories a day, with 600 of those units coming from fat. The latter wobbles along with 1,090 calories, 670 from fat.
Prompted by rising rates of obesity and diabetes, menu-labeling laws are popping up across the country. In fact, California's regulations are duplicated by a proposed national law, the Labeling Education and Nutrition Act (LEAN). In the near future, all American diners may be wiser and, like April McCafferty, sadder.
But we need to learn the nutritional facts of life, insisted Dr. Eric Braverman, for our own good.
"Clearly," said Braverman, an assistant professor at New York's Cornell Weill Medical College and author of "The Younger (Thinner) You Diet," "smoking education has worked. There is no reason to believe that sugar, salt and fat education won't work."
Many restaurants weren't in the mood for this education. Between spring 2008 and spring 2009, business fell 2.6 percent nationwide, reported NPD Group, a firm that tracks dining trends. In this difficult economy, menu labeling was as popular as an e. coli outbreak.
"All the restaurants were fighting it, fighting it, fighting it," said Alyson Mar, lead dietician for FoodCalc, a San Francisco-based consultant on nutritional analysis and labeling issues.
The issue, though, wouldn't go away. New York City passed a menu-labeling law in 2006; dozens of jurisdictions, from Chicago to Los Angeles County, crafted similar laws. Last year, the California Restaurant Association stopped fighting and backed a menu-labeling bill that would cover the entire state, trumping all local ordinances.
Industry support meant industry input. The association successfully pushed to limit the law to chains with 20 or more restaurants in the state. Rubio's qualifies. Brochures in its San Diego-area store reveal the signature fish taco's calories (270), carbohydrates (29 grams), sodium (420 milligrams) and saturated fat content (2 grams).
But at the adjacent Stone Oven, an Ohio-based sandwich and soup chain with few California outlets, diners receive no info on the Santa Fe Hot Ham Sandwich.
Even at places covered by the law, though, finding data can be a chore. By January 2011, restaurants will be required to post dietary information on menus or menu boards. For now, though, written material can be offered anywhere on the premises. Chipotle has double-sided handouts in a box near the entrance; Pei Wei's four-page sheet is behind the counter; California Pizza Kitchen includes calorie counts on the printed menu.
Jack in the Box offers an exhaustive 24-page guide by the counter. At some locations, including the Jack on La Mesa's Jackson Drive, the San Diego-based chain is experimenting with drive-up menu boards highlighting "Healthy Dining" choices. (The chicken teriyaki bowl, say, with 580 calories and 1 gram of saturated fat.)
On a recent afternoon, Ashley Zufelt didn't notice the new display, even though her order -- a mango smoothie, 450 calories and 0 grams of saturated fat -- was among the recommended items.
Colleen Hackner did see the sign, although she was unimpressed: "I just don't believe that they are much healthier."
She ordered a kid's burger with cheese. Plain.
"No toppings," Hackner said. "It's the condiments that kill you."
Will the truth, nutritional variety, set us free from heart disease, hypertension, and our addiction to sugar and fat? Depends on whom you ask.
"Overall," said Mar, FoodCalc's dietician, "this hasn't changed ordinary dining habits that much."
Braverman, the New York physician, insisted these laws will change our habits, even if we already understand that celery sticks are healthier than triple-bacon cheeseburgers. We could all use a nudge in the right direction, he maintained.
"The reminder is frequently the tipping point," Braverman said.
Reina Kluge of San Carlos, Calif., agreed. As the mother of an 8-year-old, she's paying more attention to nutrition. "When you want something," she said, "and you see how many calories it is, you might change your mind about it."
Especially when those calories come as a surprise, good or bad. Pei Wei's Japanese chicken teriyaki bowl looks like a weight-watcher's delight, at 440 calories per serving. But each bowl contains two servings, or the caloric equivalent of a Jumbo Jack and a small order of fries.
Corner Bakery Cafe touts the fact that Health magazine listed it among the nation's 10 healthiest "quick serve chains." But its frozen mango lemonade has more calories than two pints of Guinness.
Some chains, though, are slimming down. Panda Express has a new lineup of low-calorie items, Wok Smart. Romano's Macaroni Grill re-invented several old favorites for its new Italian Mediterranean menu. The scallops and spinach salad once contained 1,270 calories and 27 grams of saturated fat; now, it is a svelte 390 and 4.
And this may be just the beginning. Braverman predicted that diners will soon be informed about dyes and pesticides used in foods, plus any trace amounts of toxins.
We'll take the tuna salad on rye, hold the mercury.
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Peter Rowe writes about food for The San Diego Union-Tribune.
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COPYRIGHT 2009 THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
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