Urge your Senators and Representative to cosponsor the Menu Education and Labeling (MEAL) bill which would provide people with clear, easy-to-use nutrition information at fast-food and other chain restaurants. 

Eating out is a growing part of the diets of most Americans.  Yet, unlike in supermarkets, where most foods are required to have nutrition labels, few restaurants provide nutrition information (with the exception of some chain restaurants that have hard-to-use pamphlets or inconvenient websites).  As a result, people may be getting more fat, sodium, and calories than they realize.  For example, did you know that a large shake at McDonald’s has 1,010 calories, which is half the calories most people should consume in an entire day?

Ask your Senators and Representative to cosponsor the MEAL bill!

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I urge you to co-sponsor the Menu Education and Labeling (MEAL) bill introduced by Senator Harkin (D-IA) and Representative DeLauro (D-CT) that would require fast-food and other chain restaurants to list calorie counts on menu boards and calories, saturated plus trans fat, and sodium on printed menus. The bill applies only to standard menu items - not to daily specials - and only to large chains with 20 or more outlets.

Two-thirds of the largest chain restaurants do not provide nutrition information to their customers, and those that do provide only hard-to-find, hard-to-read posters or brochures, or inconvenient websites. There is good nutrition information in supermarkets, but in restaurants, people can only guess what they are eating. Providing clear, easy-to-use nutrition information at fast-food and other chain restaurants would help people make healthier choices. Such information would be a boon to the millions of people who watch what they eat to manage medical conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.

Also, people may be getting more fat, sodium, and calories from restaurant foods than they realize. For example, one large McDonald's shake has as many calories as three McDonald's hamburgers and a small fry combined.

Nutrition information is needed on chain-restaurant menus. Americans eat out twice as often today as they did in 1970 and now get about one-third of their calories from outside the home. Children consume almost twice as many calories when they eat at a restaurant compared to a meal at home. And, when people eat out, they do not eat as well as they do at home. They consume more calories and saturated fat, fewer nutrients, like calcium, and less fiber.

I urge you to co-sponsor the Menu Education and Labeling bill, which would provide consumers with clear, easy-to-use nutrition information at fast-food and other chain restaurants and allow them to eat well when they eat out.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
December 03, 2003