Nutritional Info Coming to Chains, Movie Theaters and More
On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration will make an announcement requiring chain restaurants, movie theaters, grocery store take-out counters and even vending machines to post calorie counts and other nutritional information for consumers to see – a move required under the Affordable Care Act.
Some chains, such as McDonalds and Panera, already have calorie counts posted, but the new regulations will standardize how that information is presented country-wide. "Americans eat and drink about one-third of their calories away from home, and people today expect clear information about products they consume," FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a conference call.
The move has support from the National Restaurant Association. “We believe the Food and Drug Administration has positively addressed the areas of greatest concern with the proposed regulations and is providing the industry with the ability to implement the law in a way that will most benefit consumers," said Dawn Sweeney, president of the National Restaurant Association, according to USA Today.
The new regulations will go into effect in a year, except for vending machines, which will go into effect in two.
Restaurant Calorie Counts: Will They Change the Way You Order?
The Health Benefits of Practicing Improv
Last July, Alyssa Marciniak, a market research analyst for an applied research firm in the District of Columbia, was asked to give a presentation at work. When no sound came out of her mouth, Marciniak, who has suffered from social anxiety since she was 10 years old, knew she had to do something.
“It was either improv or Toastmasters,” says Marciniak, now 27. She opted for improv, not least because growing up she was obsessed with “Saturday Night Live” and wanted to be like Tina Fey. But her first improv class, in college, was disappointing. “Everyone else was just so outgoing and crazy, and I couldn’t compete with that,” she says.
So when Marciniak walked into an improv class sponsored by the Washington Improv Theater last October, she was too nervous to eat beforehand. “Eventually I got to the point where I could walk in [to class] without freaking out,” Marciniak says. “My heart wasn’t going crazy. I didn’t feel sick.” [Read more: The Health Benefits of Practicing Improv.]
Go On, Laugh Your Heart Out. It’s Good for You
Paint, Write, Sing: How the Arts Help Heal Patients
Fellow Celiacs: Are You Drinking Your Gluten?
As a dietitian who both counsels patients with newly-diagnosed celiac disease and personally follows a strict gluten-free diet as the result of my own autoimmune shortcomings, I spend a lot of time scrutinizing diets for traces of unexpected gluten, writes U.S. News blogger Tamara Duker Freuman. My work involves scouring the margins of people's diets, from their medications and vitamins to favorite candies and protein powders, to root out even trace exposure to gluten. But until recently, I had skimmed cursorily over drinks as a potential source of gluten exposure in my celiac patients, doing a quick check to make sure they knew to avoid obvious sources such as beer and malt beverages.
But lately, the risk of gluten contamination from beverages has been on my radar screen to a much more prominent degree. I had one patient whose celiac antibodies remained positive – and whose digestive distress persisted – despite the most careful attention to her diet. We eventually realized that the digestive comfort tea she was using to calm her stomach was made with barley ... and was ironically the source of her ongoing distress! This was followed soon after by a patient who experienced severe diarrhea after consuming a seasonal pumpkin coffee beverage from a leading donut chain. And as a result, I’ve been spending more time delving into all of the other potential sources of drinkable gluten so that I can better prepare my patients for success at making sure they don’t wash down their gluten-free diets with, well, gluten. [Read more: Fellow Celiacs: Are You Drinking Your Gluten?]
The Problem With Gluten-Free Foods
How to Order a Healthy Cup of Coffee
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