Many U.S. chain restaurants are promoting "extreme eating" with dishes that pack at least a day's calories and fat, without giving customers facts about their orders, a consumer group said on Monday.
Displaying restaurant offerings including a cheese-laden chicken-and-pasta dish they dubbed "Angioplasta," officials at the Center for Science in the Public Interest said such dishes help fuel national epidemics of obesity and heart disease.
They urged local, state and national governments to make restaurants list nutritional data on their menus.
Michael Jacobson, the group's executive director, took aim at "table-service" chain restaurants like Ruby Tuesday's and Uno Chicago Grill. Such places increasingly stuff their dishes with extra unhealthy ingredients, he said.
"What we're finding is that table-service restaurants have launched into a whole new era of extreme eating," Jacobson said. "If we're going to deal with the epidemic of obesity and the tremendous prevalence of heart attacks and strokes, we're going to have to do something about restaurant foods."
Jacobson's group often criticizes at a variety of restaurant foods. Some critics deride the group as self-appointed food police.
Jacobson said restaurants have had more than enough time to voluntarily provide nutritional data such as calorie, fat and salt content but many do not.
"Restaurants have every right to make these foods and you have every right to eat them," Jacobson said. "But I think at the very least these restaurants should give consumers the information that would enable them to make some decent eating choices."
美國(guó)一消費(fèi)者組織于本周一指出,美國(guó)很多連鎖餐廳目前正在力推相當(dāng)于至少一整天熱量和脂肪的“極限飲食”,而且不向顧客說(shuō)明所點(diǎn)食品中所含的成分。
比如有的餐館提供一種名叫Angioplasta的奶酪雞肉通心粉,公共利益科學(xué)中心的官員們說(shuō),這種食品會(huì)引發(fā)全國(guó)范圍內(nèi)的肥胖和心臟病。
有關(guān)官員敦促美國(guó)各地、各州和全國(guó)政府做出規(guī)定:餐館必須在菜單上列出食物中所含營(yíng)養(yǎng)成分的具體數(shù)值。
此消費(fèi)者權(quán)益組織的執(zhí)行主任邁克爾·雅各布森將類似Ruby Tuesday's和 Uno Chicago Grill等提供“桌上服務(wù)”的連鎖餐館作為此次行動(dòng)的主要目標(biāo)。他說(shuō),這些餐館提供的食物中所含的不健康成分越來(lái)越多。
雅各布森說(shuō):“我們發(fā)現(xiàn),這些餐館已開創(chuàng)了一個(gè)全新的'極限飲食'時(shí)代。如果要控制全國(guó)流行的肥胖、心臟病和中風(fēng),我們必須對(duì)這些餐館提供的食品采取點(diǎn)行動(dòng)。”
雅各布森所在的這個(gè)消費(fèi)者組織常對(duì)餐館提供的食物進(jìn)行批評(píng)。一些批評(píng)人士嘲諷這個(gè)組織為“自封的食品警察”。
雅各布森說(shuō),餐館完全有時(shí)間主動(dòng)向顧客提供食物中如熱量、脂肪和鹽等營(yíng)養(yǎng)成分的含量。但很多餐館都沒(méi)有做到這一點(diǎn)。
“餐館有制作食品的權(quán)利,顧客有吃的權(quán)利,但我認(rèn)為這些餐館至少應(yīng)該向顧客提供能讓他們做出合理飲食選擇的信息。”