Chain restaurants in Toronto should have calorie and sodium (salt) counts on their menus, according to the city’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown.
According to a news release from the City of Toronto’s public health department, nearly half (46 per cent) of adults in the city are overweight. Nearly one-quarter (24 per cent) of adults in Toronto have high blood pressure.
McKeown wants that to change.
In the news release he said that, “diners underestimate the calories and sodium in their restaurant meals.”
Having the calorie and sodium figures right on the menu will help people make healthier choices when they order their food.
Many restaurants make nutritional information available, but it’s on a website or a brochure rather than right beside the food choices on the menu. That means people would have to look it up or ask for it from the server. When the information is listed right beside the menu items, people are more likely to consider it and use it to make better choices.
It also lets diners compare the menu items more easily.
Toronto Public Health will ask the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to develop a law that requires chain restaurants to put the calorie and salt counts on their menus.
The change would apply to restaurants that have 10 or more locations in Canada, or make more than $10-million a year.
They will be presenting their recommendations at a Board of Health meeting on April 29.
Related link
This TKN article from Sept. 2012 talks about how McDonald’s decided to post calorie counts on their menus in the U.S.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly & B.D
Writing/Discussion Prompt
“How would these menus affect your eating decisions?” – B.D
Reading Prompt: Extending Understanding
Think of a restaurant that has over 10 different locations. Make a menu for that restaurant, as you imagine it would look, with nutritional information included. Be sure to note items like: calories, fat, and sodium.
Primary
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge and experience, to other famil- iar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Junior
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Intermediate
Extend understanding of texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Grammar Feature: Sentence Structure
Today’s article begins,
“Chain restaurants in Toronto should have calorie and sodium (salt) counts on their menus, according to the city’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown.”
In this sentence, the speaker is identified at the end. The sentence could have been organized with the speaker at the beginning too.
“According to the city’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown, chain restaurants in Toronto should have calorie and sodium (salt) counts on their menus.”
How do the order of the sentences affect your understanding differently? Why might the author have chosen to start the story by using the first example?
