Post by homebase on Oct 18, 2008 14:27:48 GMT -5
This poster is part of an education campaign noting that a typical adult needs no more than 2,000 calories a day. (Photo: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene)
Article:
Watch Those Calories, City Tells Subway Riders
October 6, 2008, 5:36 pm
By Sewell Chan
These days, the New York City subways seem to be filled with advertisements carrying prominent, unmissable public-service messages: Watch out for second-hand smoke. Call 311 if you see a homeless person who needs help. Be on the lookout for signs of child abuse. Don’t harass women.
(And we’re not even talking about the new, wraparound advertisements for the History Channel.)
Now the authorities have a new message for subway riders: Watch those calories.
A new public education campaign by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene — five advertisements, which will be posted in 1,000 subway cars — struck a variety of themes.
One argument made is that some meals are just too big. One ad shows a plate with a chicken burrito and full toppings: tomato, guacamole and sour cream (1,170 calories). Another shows a box of fried chicken, with a biscuit, macaroni and cheese and a soda (1,210 calories). “If this is lunch, is there room for a dinner?” the ads ask.
Other ads suggest smaller portions. For example, getting a double cheeseburger with small fries and a diet soda (670 calories) can be a vast improvement over the same cheeseburger with large fries and regular soda (1,250 calories). The motto: “Choose less, weigh less.”
Another tactic used in the campaign is surprise. Who knew that a tuna sub sandwich (530 calories) was so much richer than a roast beef sub (290 calories)?
Then there is the guilt factor. One ad shows a giant apple-raisin muffin (470 calories) and declares: “Healthy snack? Maybe not.”
There is an online component to the ad campaign. Cathy Nonas, a dietitian who directs the Health Department’s physical activity and nutrition program, will host a blog on calorie counting later this week at nyc.gov/health.
The city has taken action to ban trans fats and require restaurants to post calorie counts on their menu boards and believes that more information is better. The Health Department said in a press release:
Health Department surveys have shown that when restaurant patrons use calorie information in deciding what to order, they average nearly 100 fewer calories in each meal purchased. The Health Department estimates that posting calories on menu boards and menus will reduce the number of people who suffer from obesity by 150,000 over the next five years, preventing more than 30,000 cases of diabetes.
This will probably lead to government imposed portion control, stigmatize a large portion of the population and create animosity toward large sized people for being a "burden" on the health care system.
I never would have believed that New Yorkers would be so willing to bend over and keep getting rammed raw and battered by this over imposing freedom hating nanny Big Government that is more that willing to take them for everything they have and leave them high and dry when there is nothing left to extort, steal or pilfer from!
When did Health departments become "Health Authorities"?