I’ve had some nice cheap meals in the US, at independent diners, where the food probably had a huge calorie count. It just feels healthier eating something which wasn’t cooked up in a lab and then processed into equal sized portions in a factory, before being frozen for months.

My home town of Portland, Oregon is trying to pass legislation that forces chain restaurants to give the nutritional content (including the calories) of the food they’re serving. Restaurant owners are pretty fired up about this. It’s not fair! Why? If you’re making people fat and unhealthy, stop it. Serve real food that makes your customers thrive and be less FAT. It’s not an unreasonable request.

http://blog.thelistbykamigray.com/

I think if you want to ignore calories you should be able to, however it is difficult for most people to judge how many calories are in food. Especially food from resturants and what have you. If you want to make all of your food yourself from now on, then you don’t have to worry about calories. You know what you’re putting into the food, and can basically figure out how bad or good that is. Like Olive Oil vs regular Oil for example.

For people who do eat out, it isn’t easy to figure out the calories for things, because you’re not in the kitchen seeing the food be prepared. We live in a world where people don’t have the time to cook every meal. That doesn’t mean that we’re lazy, it means that we’re actually going out and being more productive.

I think health and size-positivity are two different things. You can say, as a part of being size-positive I’m going not to worry about what I’m eating, but that may not be healthy for you. Even though there are alot of people who can get hung up over the number of calories in food, that doesn’t mean we should do away with calories altogether.

I’m a physicist, and in science you don’t trust people who always gets the experimental result they were looking for. I’d say the same is true for journalists who always find the shocking story they’re looking for. I can just hear them at the meeting “These numbers aren’t shocking enough! Add some butter!”

Anyway, for me this story was more a lesson in remembering not to trust bold claims from the media without looking into the details than a lesson in chains being dishonest. I never eat at chains (mostly because I can cook much healthier and more delicious food at home) but I do think they’re making a good-faith effort to make the “healthy” options they serve a reasonable alternative for people who don’t want to consume the equivalent of a whole day’s calories in one sitting…

Why is there no CA Pizza Kitchen on there, though. I’ve so wanted to know, since that is my favorite spot to have a salad or pasta (I really don’t like their pizza much).

Here in LaLaLand (as in most big cities), you can find any number of independent eateries, from coffee shops to ethnic spots to high-end dining rooms, all of which offer you better food (and in the case of the ethnic cafes cheaper), fresher and more interesting choices
than any chain. Also, since most dishes are prepared to order, you can always ask for no salt, no butter, etc. in the preparation.