RV: Super Sizing Alive and Well at Nation’s Chain Restaurants

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From: News from CSPI <cspinews@cspinet.org>

Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:40:30 -0500

To: News from CSPI<cspinews@cspinet.org>

Subject: Super Sizing Alive and Well at Nation's Cha in Restaurants

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Monday, August 30, 2010  
Contact:  Jeff Cronin, 202-777-8370, or Stacey Greene, 202-777-8316

Super Sizing Alive and Well at Nation's Chain Restaurants

Nutrition Action Healthletter Illustrates How One 'Serving' Is Really More Like Two, Three, or Four

WASHINGTON—A typical burrito weighs about 5 ounces, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Yet a Chicken Burrito at Chipotle weighs four times as much, delivering 970 calories—including 300 calories from the white-flour tortilla alone.  As Nutrition Action Healthletter illustrates in its September issue, Chipotle and other chain restaurants are reprogramming Americans' expectations of what a "serving" of a food is.  

         Fortunately, calorie counts are soon coming to chain restaurant menu boards, thanks to the federal health care reform law now being implemented.  And, from the article, here are 4 other examples of how far an actual serving exceeds the official serving size:

"Chain restaurants have helped dissolve any sense of perspective when it comes to what a reasonable serving of food is," said Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director at the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, Nutrition Action's publisher.  "When 300-calorie bagels and 1,000-calorie burritos became the norm, it's easy to understand why two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese."

Nutrition Action Healthletter is the largest-circulation health newsletter in North America, with 850,000 subscribers.  Introductory subscriptions are $10 in the U.S. and $15 in Canada.

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The Center for Science in the Public Interest is a nonprofit health advocacy group based in Washington, DC, that focuses on nutrition, food safety, and pro-health alcohol policies.  CSPI is supported by the 900,000 U.S. and Canadian subscribers to its Nutrition Action Healthletter and by foundation grants.  

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