There is an inherent danger in espousing the attitude of “we are all big boys and girls, and should know which decisions to make about everything…” To me, such attitudes allow room for companies which are irresponsible with their nutrient and genetic modification of foods to get away with endangering millions of ignorant, and well meaning individuals, into poor choices. Such food choices as salads, and fruit or yoghurt may come to some people as the “healthy, obvious choice,” but many of these so called companies under the guise of a “restaurant with fresh made food,” put untold amounts of sugar and fat in these meal choices.
People all the time say “I eat healthy, I eat at P.F. Chang’s.” Yet, have you seen the nutritional content of their food? I haven’t seen ONE dish, under 500 calories. Their seemingly “healthiest” dish has 2,000 calories – the total amount of calories that the USDA says the “average American” should consume in a day. If you just ate half of that, and doggie bagged the other, you would still be consuming 1,000 calories in just one meal!
Consumers are VERY impressionable people. At restaurants, tricks such as ordering half a meal, getting a doggie bag, or even a kids sized meal… (like with the example I mentioned above) are MOOT. Did any of you know that the biggest consumers of protein bars, sports drinks, and ‘health’ shakes are NOT athletes, but severely overweight people? Marketing companies have now gone out of their way to market these things as healthy alternatives to these kinds of people because they realized they were more their target audience, than atheletes… but, for a couch potato who doesn’t get off his keister to go exercise, they are anything but! All that stuff turns to immediate fat, and high blood sugars, and more insulin issues.
The reality is that more and more restaurants and food manufacturers are marketing to people as though their food is healthy, and manageable in portions (when it is clearly NOT), and more and more Americans with their jobs are eating out, every day, and not making their meals. This is the nature of our capitalistic society… work our people to death until they have no time to even spend with their families, and spouse, much less on eating healthy and exercising. There HAS to be something done. There HAS to be something done because the cheapest foods are those calorically expensive foods, and we are an increasingly poorer nation with people becoming highly overweight because all they can afford are the huge ■■■ portions at Perkins, or Denny’s, or the dollar burgers at Burger King.
With restaurants (which are nothing but classed-up fast food/junk food joints, for the most part), it’s an addictive, vicious cycle with people… The same as it is with cigarrettes and alcohol… Should we let everyone be big boy and girls, and give in to no alcohol regulations, no cigarrette, no gun regulations at all? I mean, how bad does it have to get? We are in danger, as a society… Many other countries do not have the problems we do… We’re becoming a nation of uneducated porkers because even the “healthy” foods are NOT healthy. There HAVE to be standards for everything. I think people have the right to know what it is they are putting in their body, so they can make a more educated decision… and not think they are getting a healthy meal because they only ate half of it… When in reality, it was a 1,000 calorie bomb! Restaurants make their food addicting to make people keep coming back… It’s a mine field. People should have tools to deal with it… and if they still wanna eat the 1,000 calorie bomb, then that’s their choice.
I mean, that’s what they always said about cigarrettes “we’re all grown up boys and girls, and it’s not addictive… if it’s bad for you, just quit.” Sure… Like it’s soooo easy for so many people. It’s not… and neither is making healthy food choices, or thinking you are making them when you are not.
While I don’t think all restaurants are bad, MOST restaurants out there, are chain restaurants… which are classier versions of fast food joints. It’s all the same CRAP, and all bad for you. People need tools, and regulations, so that places aren’t just gratuitiously making 3,000+ calorie salads and passing them off as healthy,and no one knows cus they don’t even have a frigging calorie count to look at!
I guarantee that in 50 years, all of you will be bitching and whining about how bad these people are, and how they have ruined our health… Just like the cigarette makers.
I normally eat the veg/meat selections and fruit dishes. Their plates seem smaller than many Restaurants. I still think that they have the MSG in their food or perhaps it’s just the ton of sugar and salt. Why else does it taste so Good?? 
