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Show Nutritional information in eating establishments- petition

It's a good idea but I have become so accustomed to guessing the carb content of a meal (quite successfully) I'd probably end up ignoring them anyway. When we eat out I simply order the meal and request the high carb content be omitted (i.e. Chips, potatoes, rice , pasta, bread and for salads to be 'undressed'). I normally get offered more salad in place of the carby portion and it's pretty easy to bolus for salad and meat ,even I get it right.
 
If I'm honest, I'd rather not be able to find out and would prefer to guess. If you are going out for a special meal, do you really want to have a breakdown of absolutely everything on the menu in front of you? Apart from making the menu enormous, I'm also happy to guess and monitor.
 
Hi. The EU is part of the problem here. McDonalds used to display Carbs etc on each food product pack. They stopped doing this a year or so ago and now just show calories etc. When I queried this with head office they said that EU labelling regs meant they had to focus on the 'Calories' stuff (similar to supermarket food labelling)and there was no need to show carbs prominently. They do have everything listed on the tray sheets however. The EU regs are stupid and based around the low-fat mantra and calories which many feel are not key factors in diet.
 
My bugbear is recipes published in magazines or newspapers with huge quantities of carbs and no nutrition information. For example there is a cake recipe in the current Aldi leaflet. it doesn't state how many portions it is but it contains 380g caster sugar, 200g flour, 4 tbsp lemon curd , 600g strawberries, 150g blackberries. I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, I'm controlling my T2 by diet alone,100-150g carb a day. But is it any wonder the incidence of T2 is increasing when recipes like this are published with no nutrition info at all. I would like all published recipes to have nutrition information.
 

Just when I glance over recipes like that, I start to get that hyper-induced thirsty feeling.


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Pleased to hear that restaurants have the info. available. Yes I would certainly support any action to have the info. more visible.
 
I don't see the point of a petition really when as others have said if you request the nutritional value of meals they have to provide it so what more do we need. Why would they want to display it when at least 90% of their customers who are not diabetic or don't have a food allergy would not be interested in it
 

Because a lot of those ninety percent will still on on various kinds of diets, or be health conscious.
 
RoseofSharon said:
Because a lot of those ninety percent will still on on various kinds of diets, or be health conscious.
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I'm against the idea. It'll force lots of little eating places to close, or the margin of error permitted would be so large they may as well not bother. Why should we expect others to have to pay a premium to make things easier for us?

Most chefs aren't trained as as food scientists so would need to pay a laboratory to analyse each meal. This would also slow down the rate of menu changes, as the new menu would need to be analysed before being introduced. Does it also mean that a chef can't alter a menu to react to availability of ingredients?

I can see it working for chain restaurants, but not for the tea shop in a garden centre for example.
 
I have to be honest was talking about this with my foodie friends this afternoon (chefs, owners, front of house etc) they all said on average that they get asked about once every three or four weeks what's in their recipes - the biggest one is nuts then flour, this was from a mixture of styles of cooking Italian Chinese Thai Indian and bistro style - so seems it's not as common as we all like to think - or all my mates have very clued up customers lol - of course as a collective here it's very important to us but maybe not so the general population
 
Knowing the ingredients is very different to knowing the carbohydrates, calories , fat content, etc, etc.
 
Moggies12 said:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/132394

Hi Interaud, that should be the link to the petition

Thought I'd put it in the original post silly me. Tried to edit it but not very successfully!
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Hiya Moggies12 thanks so much for link. Will try again to put my print on it, and I'm pleased to know that many restaurants etc DO actually provide this info already. Maybe I haven't caught on in my fairly small town as I have been very reserved about going out and eating food I haven't prepared myself. Good on yer girl!
 
Why should restaurants have to be compelled to publish nutritional info at all...this is your disease not the restaurants
 
Hi, good luck. I tried to raise the same issue on the Type 2 part of the forum, but was unaware of the petition. The response was positively underwhelming. I hope you have better luck. I will add my name now.
 
tshok said:
Why should restaurants have to be compelled to publish nutritional info at all...this is your disease not the restaurants
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Hmm, that's the right attitude. Possibly because they want custom and to be helpful to their clientele? As you say "your" disease, are you not affected by it?
 
Well yes that is my attitude or maybe you can tell me what my attitude should be?? I do have diabetes (t1) but i don't feel the whole world has to fall into line with me....too many wingers on this site
 
tshok said:
Well yes that is my attitude or maybe you can tell me what my attitude should be?? I do have diabetes (t1) but i don't feel the whole world has to fall into line with me....too many wingers on this site
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I can't argue with that. My disease, my problem and my responsibility. I have yet to have a drama with eating something "bad" when I go out for a meal. Staff have always been understanding (I guess they wanted me to go back again) and obliging. If I cannot ask questions and make the correct decision for the right outcome, then its time for me to give away eating out.(.I
realise that there are people who have to be REAL careful)
 
tshok said:
Well yes that is my attitude or maybe you can tell me what my attitude should be?? I do have diabetes (t1) but i don't feel the whole world has to fall into line with me....too many wingers on this site
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Yes the disease is each individual's problem/responsibility. Having said that is it part of human nature (and law in a different context) to have a duty of care to each other?! No it is not about trying to force others to do care for us, but rather requesting for that extra little help for each and everyone of us that need that bit more information to make an informed choice about what is best for our health. No eating something 'naughty' or 'wrong' may not have an immediate effect (unless we are already suffering from one of the more severe complications) however every single thing that we eat and drink contributed to the overall health and does have an impact. Does it not actually come under the whole 'hidden disabilities' thing? I know most of us would not consider ourselves disable, yet weirdly we DO have a hidden disability that DOES affect our lives to some degree or another. (I actually have more than one as I also suffer from fibromyalgia). However I signed the petition as I know many people out there need the utritional information, not just diabetics. This is not about one or two individuals but about aiding ALL who for whatever reason need to know what is in their food.
 
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