Reaman claims the restaurant association’s position is backed by the Dietitians of Canada. “They’ve been on the record in the past in suggesting a calorie-only approach to communicating nutrition information is probably essentially misleading,” he says.
In fact, while the dietitians want a full spectrum of nutritional information available, their association endorses calorie counts on menus. “Our rationale is that anything that makes the healthier choice the easier choice is what we should be supporting,” says Judy Sheeshka, a dietitian and an associate professor at the University of Guelph. She researches food and nutrition policy, and wrote the position paper on the issue.
Reaman says the CRFA’s information program meets public needs, and Health Canada seems inclined to agree. “We continue to closely monitor this voluntary initiative,” said spokesman Philippe Laroche, “to determine if a model for regulatory compliance could be developed that would be both practical and enforceable.” Critics, however, say the program is of limited use. Sheeshka dispatched her students to participating Guelph restaurants. In many cases the information was only on websites. In others, front-line staff had to find managers before a binder or a handout was produced. “Sometimes it was posted on a wall outside a washroom or some obscure place where you wouldn’t look before you ordered,” she says.
If the method of educating the public is in dispute, there’s no doubt North Americans need to curb their eating habits. Obesity rates have doubled in the U.S. in 30 years and Canadians waddle not far behind. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. One-third are obese, defined as having a body mass index (the relationship of weight to height) of 30 or more. In Canada, one-quarter of Canadian adults are obese and many more are overweight. “We have a country where it’s abnormal to have a healthy body weight,” says Freedhoff. Even among those aged 12 to 17, some 26 per cent are overweight or obese. The estimated cost of “obesity-related chronic conditions” in 2005: $4.3 billion, says the Public Health Agency of Canada.
In the U.S., just three years ago, the National Restaurant Association in the U.S. was as opposed to posted calorie counts as its Canadian counterpart. The industry sued the New York health department in a failed bid to overturn its calorie law and threatened to sue other jurisdictions that followed suit. But when the calorie law got bipartisan support in the national health reform package, and first lady Michelle Obama began her campaign against childhood obesity, the industry had a dramatic conversion on the drive-through to Damascus. It decided one federal law was preferable to a growing hodgepodge of regional regulations.
The same arguments that the Canadian association uses (ineffective, impossible to implement, too calorie-focused, too confusing) were abandoned overnight. “The passage of this provision is a win for consumers and restaurateurs,” American restaurant association president Dawn Sweeney said this spring. “We know the importance of providing consumers with the information they want and need, no matter where in the country they are dining.”
Advocates like Bill Jeffery, national coordinator for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, say Canadian restaurateurs are delaying the inevitable. Packaged food in stores has had nutrition labels for years, he says. “Their customers are making informed choices. It’s not going to be too long before they’re saying to government, ‘Why is the restaurant industry getting a free ride?’ ”
In Ontario, New Democrat MPP France Gélinas is reintroducing a private member’s bill calling for calorie labelling. Her previous attempt—opposed by the CRFA—died when the Ontario legislature prorogued in March. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has said the federal government should take the lead on obesity issues, a position supported by Ida Chong, B.C.’s minister of healthy living and sport. Meanwhile, though, she says her department has had preliminary talks with restaurants about a sodium reduction strategy and prominent calorie displays “very similar” to the U.S. law.
If the federal government doesn’t take the initiative, B.C. is prepared to act alone, she told Maclean’s. With the U.S. taking the lead, the job is much easier, she said. “People will realize the sky will not fall if you do this.”
If so, calorie counts on menus may soon be as accepted as the no-smoking signs on restaurants and bars—another initiative the CRFA once opposed.
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