Restaurant industry advocates say adding nutritional information on menus won?t help solve obesity issues, but others say consumers need all the nutritional help they can get.
Stirring the pot is a Montgomery County proposal that would mandate restaurants with more than 10 locations nationwide to list the calories, grams of saturated fat and sodium content of food items on their menus or menu boards.
“The point that I?m trying to get across to people is everyone looks to government to reduce the crime rate, improve highway and pedestrian safety,” said Council Member George Leventhalm. “Yet heart disease kills far more Americans than traffic accidents and homicide. I do think it is valid for us as policy-makers to consider what we are doing to improve the public health.”
County officials said 15 people had signed up to testify at Tuesday?s public hearing on the bill: Four in favor of the legislation and 11 in opposition.
J. Justin Wilson, a senior research analyst with the Center for Consumer Freedom, said he would speak against the measure.
“These politically expedient bills or resolutions miss the forest for the trees,” Wilson said. “Obesity is much more complex than regulating the menus of a few restaurants in a single county. One?s weight is one?s choice, and government intervention only pushes us further away from personal responsibility.”
Mia Dell, government relations manager for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, disagreed.
She told The Examiner she planned to tell council members the bill was a smart step toward protecting the consumer?s health.
“There is no one silver bullet to eliminate obesity,” Dell said. “This is not telling people what they can buy or restaurants what they can sell. This kind of legislation is trying to help consumers make the healthiest choices they can.”
John Nestor, general manager of Houston?s in Bethesda, said he was concerned about increased liability for restaurant owners should a meal?s calorie content vary.
“Cooking is not an exact science,” Nestor said. “We are not mass-produced. … As much as we love this market, are we going to put ourselves out there to get hit with amultimillion [-dollar] lawsuit? Why not take our business over to Virginia?”
