The Washington Post
WASHINGTON -- "Eating better" is a perennial new year's resolution, and this year, your chain restaurants are here to help. KFC has a 395-calorie grilled chicken meal, served with green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy. Next week, Starbucks will introduce four sandwiches with 400 calories or fewer. And all of the coffee company's 11,000 or so stores will launch a campaign to promote beverages under 90 calories.
Such offerings were not designed just for new-year dieters. Restaurant chains across the country are reformulating fat- and calorie-laden items and introducing lighter, more healthful options in preparation for federal menu labeling requirements that are part of the health care reform that President Obama hopes to soon sign into law.
Restaurants had long fought such government control; the industry tied up a New York City regulation in court for two years before the rule finally went into effect in 2008. But with 26.6 percent of Americans considered obese and 48 percent of food dollars spent on food eaten outside the home, fast-food and chain restaurants are an easy legislative target. Consumer interest in healthful eating has helped persuade the industry to support uniform national regulations.
If enacted, the health-care reform law would mandate that chains with more than 20 outlets must post calories on the menu in a "clear and conspicuous" manner and provide complete nutritional information upon request. Public-health advocates hope the rules go into effect within two years.
Whether disclosing calories on a menu will change consumer behavior remains the subject of contentious debate, but a new study supports the idea that it can: An analysis of 100 million transactions over 14 months at Starbucks by researchers at Stanford University showed that when calories were posted prominently, the average number of calories per transaction fell by 6 percent.
Taco Bell's Fresco menu has eight items with nine grams of fat or fewer. Long John Silver's has a Freshside Grille menu that focuses on non-fried fish. More than 300 chain restaurants now promote their more-nutritious dishes on the Healthy Dining Finder (www.healthydiningfinder.com), a Web site that lists restaurants that offer at least four meals with fewer than 750 calories and 25 grams of fat.
"Restaurants know they need to do something. They hear it from their customers. It's going to be mandated by law. It's becoming important both in operations and marketing," said Anita Jones-Mueller, Healthy Dining Finder's president.
