Jamie France | Nutritional tough love

Philadelphia's local politicians are not only reinforcing the age-old philosophy, "you are what you eat"; they're rubbing it in our faces.

The attention of city council members was recently shifted from the ubiquitous issues of crime and poverty to a considerably lighter topic: nutrition.

On March 1, Philadelphia City Councilman Blondell Reynolds Brown proposed a law that requires all chain restaurants to display extensive nutrition information next to each meal on their menus. If passed, it will apply to all restaurants or "similar food establishments" (e.g. Starbucks) that have at least 10 locations, in the city or elsewhere.

The core specifications of the ordinance are as follows:

The total number of calories, grams of saturated fat, grams of carbohydrates and milligrams of sodium must be listed for all food and beverage items on any menu or menu board. The nutrition information must be listed adjacent to each item on the menu in the same sized font as any other information about the item.

At the bottom of every menu, there must be a clear statement of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recommended limits for a 2,000 calorie daily diet, for grams of saturated fat and milligrams of sodium.

A restaurant with a buffet line or cafeteria-style service may limit the nutrition information to the number of calories per standard serving, but the additional information must be readily available to customers upon request.

Finally, restaurants that deliver food in wrappers or boxes must display the nutrition information on the wrappers and boxes.

The remaining regulations express the convoluted guidelines for food items that come in various flavors, food items that are offered with condiments, and - God forbid - daily specials. Violations are punishable by a $500 fine.

Now, I admit that the level of tediousness required by this bill is a bit absurd. I fear the effects it will have on such well-established businesses as Micky D's and Wendy's. And, more strongly, I sympathize with those who will be forced to calculate the nutritional facts of every food item and beverage known to man.

But I will confess: I like where this is going.

Currently, about 31 percent of Americans are obese, meaning they're 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight. Almost 65 percent are overweight (10-30 pounds over a healthy weight). Even in the latter category, the chances of developing diabetes, heart disease and a multitude of other health problems are significantly increased.

The most obvious rationale for the nutrition bill is that it will help overweight people recognize the harm in food they're regularly consuming. They might think twice about ordering fried fast food if the number of calories in each item is sitting in bold print, right on the menu. The enforcement of this bill can only relieve the obesity pool.

Additionally, from the perspective of a college female on an unbelievably weight-wary campus, this law has the potential to aid the underweight population as well.

Eating disorders are generally characterized by the distorted cognition, "if I eat anything, I'll gain weight." Seeing in print that many food items are not as nutritionally detrimental as one might assume may lead underweight individuals back to healthier eating habits.

Overall, this proposal has so much promise that it has spurred my own ideas: If the law is passed in Philadelphia, I would like to see Philly's universities follow suit and invoke a similar, perhaps less intense, policy.

This isn't merely the request of a spoiled private-school student; a display of nutrition information in Penn's dining facilities would do as many wonders for the meal program as it would for the student population.

Because I am a freshman - la petite freshman, if you will - I am required to be on a meal plan that provides me with 100 meals in our dining hall. Yet I don't even know what the inside of our dining hall looks like.

Few freshmen take advantage of our mandatory meal plan because many doubt the quality of the food offered. We're surprisingly healthy individuals; Gia salads are bare necessities.

If we were provided with basic nutrition information for meals offered on campus, we would probably feel more comfortable eating them, and much less food would be thrown away with the money that we forked over for our meal plans. No pun intended.

The Philadelphia Committee on Public Health and Human Services will hold a hearing on the ordinance as early as this month. In the meantime, we'll have to continue frequenting the grocery story for nutritional awareness.

Stay healthy, Philadelphia.

Jamie France is a College freshman from Plantation, Fla. Her e-mail address is france@dailypennsylvanian.com. Le Petite Freshman appears on Fridays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.