Dynamist Blog

NUTRITIONAL INFO: WHO CARES?

Last fall, the FDA made some noises about requiring restaurants to post nutritional information, in hopes of discouraging Americans from consuming so much fattening food. The proposal didn't go very far, possibly because it would have hammered places that frequently change their menus--good restaurants--while having little effect on fast food chains.

The problem isn't that you can't get nutritional info about restaurant food. The problem is that customers don't care. When they do, restaurants respond--not just with information but with menu revisions. The response is so swift that it makes an embarrassingly perfect libertarian just-so story. Exhibit A: the sudden proliferation of Atkins-friendly dishes and carb counts. Of course, sometimes it gets a little silly. My favorite example is Einstein Bagel's new low carb bagel.

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