Chaining Chain Restaurants

After nearly two years of legal maneuvering, a regulation took effect in late April in New York City requiring restaurant chains to display the nutrition information of every menu item along with the price. The new regulation will affect chains with 15 or more stores – about 2,000 of the city’s 23,000 restaurants.

The Board of Health specifically targeted chains with this regulation because “chain restaurants serve food that has been clearly associated with excess calories and obesity, and studies show that people who eat fast food regularly consume more calories than those who do not,” according to the department. Giving customers nutrition information in a different format will help them make more healthful choices, which will reduce the number of obese people by 150,000 in the next five years and prevent more than 30,000 cases of diabetes, according to the Board of Health.

But the nutrition information the city has required is readily available now and is often printed on the package the food is served in at a fast food establishment. Consumers don’t make a healthful choice because they don’t feel like it, not because they need more nutrition information. Menu decisions aren’t just a logical decision-making process; there are subtle emotional cues involved as well. The sight, smell and taste of a meal at certain fast food restaurants can evoke positive feelings for those of us that grew up with the chains.

The problem is not information, and needlessly requiring chains to display more and more information will do little to change the obesity rate of any city. Regulations like New York’s also border dangerously on the First Amendment by requiring private entities to promote the state’s message. That was the argument the opponents of the bill used, but that argument was turned down by a judge who said that the city had a compelling interest in promoting the health and well-being of its citizens. That decision will be used in cases to come, as other cities and states follow New York City’s lead.

The challenge for chains and other restaurants is to find the balance between offering healthful items and the items that consumers have grown up with and eat as comfort foods. The greatest opportunity to increase healthful purchases at the store level is with children. Fruit and vegetables instead of fries are a good alternative, and I often see children and parents choose them over the other. We can instill the same emotional response the current generation has into today’s children – but instead of burgers, fries and soda, with apples and grapes, salads and water.

That’s not to say we should give up on the current generation. But when it comes to chain restaurants, let’s look to the future instead of regulating the present.