The Nutricate Receipt:what you eat is on your bill

[Gifted Gourmet]

weblog source

The Nutricate Receipt, an innovative new product that allows restaurants to disclose their nutritional information in a personal and customizable way... Since its inception, Nutricate has received tremendous support and feedback from customers and has been identified in newspapers and on television as a pioneer in healthy living.

The Nutricate Receipt is just like a normal receipt, but it also displays the nutritional information of your order. In addition, the receipt provides customers with fitness tips and suggestions on how they can modify their order in the future to make it a healthier meal. Here's a sample ...

After looking at the sample receipt and reading the article, what do you think of this idea?

Is it:

#1 a great idea! I really need this!

#2 okay but not earthshaking ...

#3 a horrible idea! who needs to know the details after a meal?

[Radio7]

Good grief! The reciept must be 3 ft. long!

[mizducky]

Given my current "healthy eating" resolution, I kinda like the idea ... in theory.

It would be more useful, however, if they provided the printout of your meal's nutritional values *before* your order is officially sent off to the kitchen, so that you could make changes to your order, rather than finding out afterwards that you should have ordered something lighter or whatever.

And it would also be nice if the printout were optional, for those people who don't want or need to know.

And if all the "helpful hints" are as clueless as the ones on that receipt (i.e. why suggest saving 110 calories by holding the mayo next time, when the customer's also got over 400 calories worth of french fried on the bill?), I would be just as happy if they skipped them entirely.

Gee, I'm no fun at all, am I?

And I'm difficult, too! I think the above answer includes bits of choices #1, #2, and #3.

[petite tête de chou]

#2. I'm already pretty savvy with the calorie and nutrient content of my meals.

[Trishiad]

Bulimia?

I don't want to know AFTER I've eaten the meal.

[SuzySushi]

Giving restaurant patrons the nutritional information only after they've eaten the meal is a pretty lame idea, IMHO. Pretty useless, unless they plan to eat the same meal at the same restaurant again, and what a guilt trip!

[purplewiz]

I'll join the chorus of finding all that out AFTER the meal is like shutting the barn door after the horse has escaped. All it's going to do is make me feel guilty and then associate that guilt with the restaurant, making me less likely to return.

If you're going to give me nutrition information, I want it up front so I can make an informed decision NOW, not sometime in the vague future.

And to be honest, a lot of the time I don't want the information at all. Unlike many folks here, we don't go out to eat very often, and when we do, it's not about nutrition, it's about socializing and flavors and enjoying the experience. If I was eating out 4+ times a week, the information would make a difference, but at our current rate, it wouldn't at all.

Marcia.

[ucsbguy22]

Hey everyone! My name is Lou and I am a student at University of California Santa Barbara. In my little college town called Isla Vista their is a restaurant called Silvergreens and they are the first restaurant to implement this new receipt. I recently vistited it and saw the receipt first hand. I thought it was an awesome idea! The receipt tells you all of the nutritional info. and is customizable to your order. There is also a spot on the receipt that tells you how to order your food healthy next time, like mine told me that "if you hold the mayo on a turkey sandwitch, you will save 110 calories and 4 grams on saturated fat." I thought this was great because the tip related to what I ordered. Also I was talking to the manager a little bit about it because I was interested and he brought up some good points. He told me that not only does this benefit the consumer by nutritionally educating them it also will benefit companys. He gave the example of McDonalds and how they have been pressured in the last couple of years to display their nutritional information to their customers. But the ways they have been doing it have not been working, because for one just by putting the calories and fat of a big mac on a board does not help the customer make a healthy choice, and if they customize their order and say they don't want special sauce the fat and calories are going to change. This could lead to lawsuits from some people because what it says on the nutritional info. is not what they are really eating. Also if Mcdonalds changes a menu item then they must throw away all of the original nutritional information and reprint all new info, which makes it costly.

It seems the biggest complaint so far from all of you that have responded is that you get it after you eat. I don't think this is a big deal because if you see what you are eating is unhealthy the receipt informs you how to make it healthy next time. I was also thinking this would be great for my mom who is on the weight watchers diet, because when she eats out she has to guess how many calories she is eating, this way she could have a way to track that and convert it to her point system helping her stick to her diet. So anyways... I know this is kind of long but I feel really strongly that this is a great idea and that it should be implemented in other places. i give it a

[Terrasanct]

And the best part is, it might stop a few people from eating at McDonalds!

[Idlewild]

For me, it's a definite #2.

Heh. Back when I was a starving student I took a survey to see how much we undergrads knew about nutrition. Aced the thing. Blew it out of the water.

Is my relationship with food healthy? Nah. It's pretty screwed. Knowing the nutrition info doesn't generally do a damn thing to offset other factors for me. Knowing the nutrition info after I already ate? What IS the point? I already know how I could have ordered healthier, I chose not to, that's my problem. I'd be downright annoyed if I got a receipt like that. How condescending.

[jsolomon]

I'm firmly in the #2 camp.

It's a start, but it still doesn't get people exercising.

[healthyeater]

I can't believe everyone is so negative. I think it's a great idea, restaurants have been displaying nutritional info before you order for a long time and it is obviously not working. I don't see any possible way to supply a person with the facts for their customized order beforehand. This system would tell me exactly what I'm eating and allow me to adjust over time. If it told me I had 50% of my calories for lunch, well then maybe I'll have a smaller dinner. And I would adjust my order the next time I went in. If I saw that the fries were worse then the sandwich, I wouldn't order the fries next time. I think it would also get kids to start paying attention to the nutritional information of what they eat and maybe when they grow up they might even know what a calorie is.

This should be in every restaurant and school in America!