- “Sandwiches and main meal salads will be capped at 550 calories, ready meals will be capped at 544 calories and main courses in restaurants will be capped at 951 calories.” Guidelines from Public Health England aren’t mandatory yet, but expect U.K. government pressure on supermarkets and restaurants [Christopher Snowdon, Baylen Linnekin, Scott Shackford, Ryan Bourne]
- “We are not saying they can never give children a chocolate or biscuit ever again,” says the Public Health England official. “But it cannot be a daily occurrence.” And more from “2018: The [mostly U.K.] nanny state year in review” [Snowdon]
- Research paper on Philadelphia soda tax: cross-border shopping completely offsets in-city reduction in beverage sales, “no significant reduction in calorie and sugar intake.” [Stephan Seiler, Anna Tuchman, and Song Yao, SSRN via Caron/TaxProf] More: owner blames tax for closure of Philly supermarket [Eric Boehm]
- Alternative headline: feds act to curb food waste by giving local schools more freedom to offer lunches kids will willingly eat [Jaden Urbi, CNBC]
- “Los Angeles councilmember Paul Koretz [has] introduced a bill that, if passed, would require entertainment and travel venues around town to put at least one vegan dish on their menus.” [Clint Rainey, Grub Street; Scott Shackford]
- “Dollar stores are the latest target of advocates who want to improve food offerings by limiting them” [Baylen Linnekin]
Filed under: eat drink and be merry, Los Angeles, nanny state, obesity, Philadelphia, school lunch, soft drinks, United Kingdom
8 Comments
You are all (food) sinners!! That is the attitude, that it is sinful to eat sweets or overeat. It is worse than religious fanatics because they want to control every mouthful of food.
“it cannot be a daily occurrence”? Some people are actually under-weight and need to force calories. Some people are extremely active. For most of my life I could eat massive quantities of food and not gain weight. Large men playing sports (like 240lbs will starve on their diet. Maybe someone missed lunch and their restaurant meal is their main meal of the day.
More critically, it is none of their business.
I don’t disagree, however this was inevitable once the U.K. nationalized medical care. It will be our fate as well if we don’t get away from socialized medicine, because mandatory weight control will be needed to bring down costs. Fat people are expensive.
“Sandwiches and main meal salads will be capped at 550 calories, ready meals will be capped at 544 calories and main courses in restaurants will be capped at 951 calories.” Guidelines from Public Health England aren’t mandatory yet, but expect U.K. government pressure on supermarkets and restaurants
Oh man, do I ever NOT want a smart fridge, now. It’s clear where this is heading.
“Open the refrigerator door, Siri.”
“I can’t do that, Dave.”
Made me laugh, Bob. Thanks.
Me too. Especially when my mind read that with Siri’s mellifluous voice.
One of the most basic things that we really do know about diet is that some people need a lot more calories than others. How many depends on body size, metabolism, and level of physical activity. To suggest that a large person doing heavy physical labor all day should restrict himself to 2500 calories per day is ridiculous. Dietary guidelines that ignore this very basic fact do not deserve to be taken seriously.
165 lbs 1976 – 2009
230 lbs currently, which has been stable 4 years
6’8
I typically eat my dinner and half my wife’s…