Doggy Bag Duo
Doggy, my Aunt Fanny. We carry food home for Ann and Fred almost every time we eat out. We use this fact that the meal will feed us twice to justify the high price of eating out every once in a while. We most definitely eat leftovers--from our table at home, from tables elsewhere. (However, we have a well-rehearsed habit of leaving our take-out on our table or at the register and realize this only after we get home. ("I thought you had it.")
Almost without fail, in any restaurant we visit, half of what is served is left on our plates when we push back from the table, and it comes home with us. But I look around and see other people leaving their tables who had the same meals we did, and their plates are clean. It is good manners, after all, as we learned growing up, to eat everything on your plates. And herein lies a problem, about which maybe now, something is being done. Who decides to manage the balance between the calories we need and those we will consume if placed in front of us? Obviously, the American diner-outter makes poor decisions on that point.
WASHINGTON --The government is trying to enlist the help of the nation's eateries in fighting obesity. One of the first things on its list: cutting portion sizes.With burgers, fries and pizza the top three eating-out favorites in this country, according to a study by The NPD Group, restaurants are in a prime position to help improve people's diets and combat obesity.
The (Food and Drug Administration) report encourages restaurants to shift the emphasis of their marketing to lower-calorie choices and include more such options on menus. In addition, restaurants could change portion sizes and the variety of foods available in mixed dishes to cut calories.
Bundling meals with more fruits and vegetables also could help. And letting consumers know how many calories are contained in a meal also could guide the choices they make, according to the report.
How do you feel about this? Will those same restaurants that cut portions also cut their prices? I'd be content to carry home fewer doggy bags, consume fewer calories and have more left in my wallet and less in my midsection. I think this is a wonderful plan. Now, if those same restaurants would clean up their menus so they don't cater to America's craving for triple patty double cheese croissant burgers. Talk about death on toast.
Comments
There are many restaurants which have taken the steps to produce some healthy menu options. Wanda and I are like you in that we always take a "people bag". It would be nice if portions sizes were reduced and quality were substituted for quantity. A smaller portion of well prepared food is as satisfying as a larger portion not so well prepared. When I was managing a Shula's Steak House patrons were offered a 48 oz porterhouse. Tony Saragusa, who played for the Ravens, ate two.
Posted by: Dave | June 8, 2006 7:27 AM
LOL on the cut in price Fred. Since the cost of the raw ingredients seldom has anything to do with the cost of the meal and are usually very inexpensive anyway, I doubt you will see anything going down on the menus. I have noticed an inverse property at work actually; the higher the cost of the meal, the lower the size of the servings. The few times I have eaten in a really expensive restaurant, the serving portions were miniscule. I remember thinking at the time that this must be how the “jet set” kept those tiny waistlines…
Posted by: Gary Boyd | June 8, 2006 7:36 AM
I certainly don't want government to start mandating portion sizes. However there have been many times that I have looked at my kids "child sized" portions and thought they looked about right, for me!
Posted by: COD | June 8, 2006 8:10 AM
Little by little I have noticed that my stomach capacity is increasing. Used to be, I couldn't finish a restaurant meal either. Now, I can polish it off with no trouble at all (as my middle can attest). I have to quit that!
Posted by: kenju | June 8, 2006 9:00 AM
I've experienced leaving those extras on the restaurant table! For someone who hates to lose a quarter in a drink machine, forgetting food destined for the next day's lunch is almost unbearable! ;)
Posted by: Deb | June 8, 2006 9:30 AM
Prices don't come down. Case in point: Breyers ice cream. Try finding a full half-gallon anywhere, or of Edies. They made the containers smaller, including less ice cream (or "product", as they call it), to avoid raising prices. So, we're functionally paying more for ice cream, with the illusion that the price hasn't changed.
I'd just like to go to a chain restaurant every now and again (when i go to one at all) and not know that the mediocre food I'm getting didn't come out of a microwave pouch. If you doubt that last, just ask one of them to bring you something like plain fettuccini, instead of with chicken, broccoli, and peas in it.
Posted by: Danny | June 8, 2006 10:21 AM
The French, who often eat rich and so-called fattening foods, don't seem to have the obesity epidemic we have in the US. Why? Portion size. And they don't snack between meals, either. I agree that adults should be able to order from the children's menu if they want. I always ask for the kiddie combo at the movies--popcorn, small soda and candy for about half the price of the adult version. It's just the right portion size for me, and no one bats an eye that I came in on a senior ticket!
Posted by: Carol Jackson | June 8, 2006 1:38 PM