Restaurant Nation
Posted: Saturday, August 08, 2009
by Jon Searles
Food is definitely a major focus of our lives. The food service industry has exploded over the last 20 years. Fast food and processed foods have made convenience eating an American past time. Restaurants have exploded accounting for an industry with over 940,000 restaurants and $566 billion in sales in 2008 (information from National Restaurant Association website at www.restaurant.org). Over 13 million people work in this industry and it is easy to say that many of us have worked in restaurants during our lifetimes. The National Restaurant industry estimates 46% of our food dollar goes to restaurant spending compared to 25% in 1955.
Restaurants today are working hard to attract consumers by offering more healthy options to their menus. I would like to tell you that this new found concern is because they love their customers. Unfortunately, it is because they love and need their customer's money to survive. While I know there are restaurant owners and family operations that genuinely feel a calling to offer meals and comfort to the stomachs of their patrons, our country seems to have blossomed with the colors of chain and franchise restaurants dominating every town in the United States. It is the dollar that drives this industry to succeed. We, as a people, look for easier and faster eating options. If most of your meals begin life by being passed from a sliding window through the driver side window of your car, you have to make the first choice to find new places to eat.
Cities and states are proposing and enacting legislation that requires restaurants to disclose the calorie and nutritional information concerning menu offerings. Many feel this will allow the consuming public to make more informed decisions concerning their food intake and help curb what many feel is an obesity epidemic. Many people do not understand the caloric content of foods and many do not really understand the nutritional labels on our foods today. Everyone will tell you that they are interested in healthier foods, but like many Americans, unless it tastes like our favorite hamburger, and fries, it may not be what we want. Whether or not we can legislate weight loss through the restaurant industry will be and interesting topic to revisit after 10-15 years of these types of laws. Will we be less obese or more informed obese people.
Since we are in difficult economic times restaurants are trying to offer large portions at low prices. This normally means lower quality food with more process steps. A fresh salad of organic vegetable with a low cal dressing is more expensive than a processed chicken sandwich with a thick food fat or high fructose syrup based spread. Unfortunately, many of us have found that our palates are more in tune with the thick fat option.
Food safety is also an issue in the restaurants in our country. Poor handling of foods, poor training, the quest for profitability and a lack of caring by workers and owners can lead to food borne illness that many times goes unreported and uninvestigated unless it hits a regional or national level. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 76 million people in the US become ill each year because of pathogens in food.
The bottom line is that restaurants will offer what the consumer demands. If we want low quality, low cost, high calorie foods, that is what will be offered. If however, we can begin by being more concerned about what we put in our bodies and what it does to our bodies, we will find that restaurants will begin to change.
Great article. Well done.I remember the case of the woman who tried to sue McDonalds for making her fat. Thus, punishing the industry for giving her what she wanted.Please log in to respond to this comment.Conner,Thank you for reading. We definitely have a lot of people trying to decide who is at fault for our girth. Individual responsibility is not always the easiest. Take care.Please log in to respond to this comment.
I absolutely agree with you, Jon. Most people do not want to take the time to learn about nutritional basics, and that's a shame.Please log in to respond to this comment.Ken,Understanding nutrition takes time. This seems a little contrary to the term "fast food". Thank you for reading.Please log in to respond to this comment.
Jon, I couldn't agree with you more especially your bottom line! A great article.Please log in to respond to this comment.Avis,As always you are great for my writing ego! Thank you .Please log in to respond to this comment.
Hi Jon.The thing about eating food that I haven't prepared myself is that I don't know what the heck might be in it. And that scares me sometimes. I think it should "scare" others as well.I was three years old in 1955, but I remember from when I was five or so, that I could count on one hand the number of times my family might go out to eat in a year.I wouldn't want to put all those millions of people on the unemployment rolls, but as a nation, we are not doing ourselves any kind of favors by letting other people prepare the majority of our meals (and to me that includes things like hamburger helpers or seasoned rice packages and the like). Popping something in the microwave doesn't mean that you made it yourself.Have you heard about the new replacement for partially hydrogenated oils (to try to circumvent the trans fatty acids stigma)? It's called intersterified oil (or high stearate oil or stearate rich oil) and it is no more good for you than what it hopes to replace.Ah well, your article got me going again. Thanks for continuing to get the word out about good food.Respectfully,DiannePlease log in to respond to this comment.Dianne,I own a bakery and I am bombarded with new "replacements" for hydrogenated oils and trans fat. The only thing we use now involves palm oil and high saturated fats which at one time was also the devil. I do, however, like the palm oil and some of the vegetable shortenings and natural fats that they are beginning to work with. Let's face it, fat is fat (animal or vegetable) and it is not the best for us. Unfortunately, it is the component that make some foods taste so good.I can also remember only going out to eat on our birthdays. Mom always had dinner on the table on the other days of the year. Thanks for reading.Please log in to respond to this comment.
Jon,I have recently prepared a variety of very fresh, healthy, semi low-fat, items for several picnics, beach parties, and gatherings. One of these items was a very simple fresh string bean salad. I have received more compliments on how wonderful everything tastes! Hmm? This also included a simple poundcake made from scratch with fresh blueberries and natural ingredients.My friends started to question whether or not they had all become accustomed to the taste of the additives/preservatives/other scary things that we have all been eating, and forgot what fresh food tasted like.We decided to test our theory by preparing some fresh dishes and other prepared/semi-prepared items that were presented in an identical fashion. (Most of our 40something test-subjects were unaware of our plan) We served several couples and hands down the fresh food won out as tasting better than the processed item; right down to mac-n-cheese! The most consistant comment was that the fresh item tasted like childhood!One other note, I was never sick as a child but was always served fresh food like fruit/veggies, homemade soups, salads, etc. As I watch my contemporaries children be sick more than healthy, I am more convinced than ever this nation needs to get back to fresh!Please log in to respond to this comment.
Well done. I ran a restaurant for a couple of years (before I wised up) and I can tell you people didn't come in for 'healthy' fare at all. Almost all of the food was deep-fried and inexpensive, and people loved it. These days, if I want something healthy I can get it for around 8 dollars, yet many choose to go to McDonalds or Jack in the Box and spend 4 bucks for twice the amount of food. It doesn't seem right, but there it is.People would eat healthier if it were less expensive (or if the junk food was more expensive), yet that doesn't seem to be happening. How it is that a salad can cost more than a hamburger is beyond me.Good job. Thanks for sharing.Please log in to respond to this comment.Michael,Unfortunately price seems to hinge on perishability of the food. You can't freeze and unfreeze a good salad or fresh produce. A hamburger you can freeze and keep for over a year. Ironically the initial and carbon costs of foods increase as you add transportation and processing steps to the foods life cycle. Someday someone will try and genetically engineer a "freezable salad" but again a new food concern is genetically engineered foods. Fresh will always be fresh. Thanks for reading.Please log in to respond to this comment.
