Rise and Fall of Healthy Menu Choices

In the past two years, many chain restaurants have discovered that while customers say they want more nutritious choices, they rarely order them. As a result, fast food and casual dining chains -- which together account for three out of four U.S. restaurant vists -- are slowly going back to what they do best: indulging Americans' taste for high-calorie, high-fat fare.

Post staff writer Margaret Webb Pressler addressed the issue in an article today. She fielded questions on restaurants' menu strategies at 1 p.m. ET, Thursday, Aug. 18 .

In another article today, Pressler addressed a move by the soft-drink industry to limit sales in school vending machines.

A transcript follows.

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Margaret Webb Pressler: Hi everyone--so glad you're interested in hearing more about healthy menus. Let's get started, there are lots of questions and comments.

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Bel Air, Md: I'm not so much concerned with restaurants offering healthier fare as I am that they just publish their nutritional information. That way, I can figure out what is completely outrageous, what is only partially outrageous, and how best to fit what they offer into my diet (Weight Watchers).

Is there any force to the movement to require restaurants to offer nutritional information, like fast food restaurants have to do? I know it would be hard for family owned, non-chain places, but the law could require it for restaurants that, for example, have more than five locations and are located in at least two states.

Thanks.

Margaret Webb Pressler: Actually, there are lots of efforts underway to force restaurants and fast food chains to put calorie information on menus. Advocates are pushing for it, and use Ruby Tuesday as an example of why it should happen: calories went on the menu and people didn't want to order the really beastly stuff. Nutrition activists say that's proof restaurants should be forced to do this--if they were, they would all be forced to come up with healthier fare that tastes good.

I'm going to post a question next that is interesting for its observation and also gets to this point.

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Rockville, MD: My wife works at Ruby Tuesday and I recall her amazement when they switched the menu to include calorie information and provide healthier food for kids' meals. Adults were afraid to order when they saw the caloric content. Kids actually cried when they were told fries no longer came with their meals.

No one is going to go to a restaurant that makes your kids cry. Ruby's learned that the hard way.

Margaret Webb Pressler: No one should be making kiddies cry--I agree! That was just silly, but it's a good example of the trend I talked about in my story. Restaurants did lots of research and heard over and over that people wanted healthier fare on menus in restaurants. Ruby gave it to them, only to find out that people didn't really want it after all, even if they thought they did. The answer here has to be baby steps, and Ruby jumped off the cliff with its nutrition push.

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Arlington, VA: If anyone out there is listening...please, please, please don't take away my BK Veggie. It's the only thing I can eat on road trips.

Margaret Webb Pressler: Not to worry. Burger King told me they are actually working on a new, better Veggie Burger. Of course, I don't know what that means, but it sure says to me the item is staying on the menu! Is it really any good? Maybe I should try it...

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Bethesda, MD: Fat, sugar and lard are tasty. The challenge is to get the healthy food to be as tasty, and as inexpensive as the $1 burger/sandwich.

It might not be possible, but that is the challenge. Have you seen anything that might give us hope?

Margaret Webb Pressler: You have hit the nail on the head. It's more than a challenge. Frankly, I don't see much on the horizon that will change that, though I am glad to see that many chains, including Ruby Tuesday and McDonald's are switching to trans-fat free oils for cooking things like fries, so at least they're not AS bad for you as they once were. I'm looking for that holy grail, too, believe me.

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Arlington, VA: Do you think the future is grim for those of us who order the more healthful items off a menu? Or will at least a few continue to remain on the menus? I go to chain restaurants or fast food places rarely, but when I do go, I prefer the healthier items there.

Margaret Webb Pressler: I don't think the future is grim because all the chains I talked to were adamant that they will be keeping a fair chunk of choices for healthier fare, and here's why: There is a steady niche of about 10 percent of the population that eats from those sections, people are eating out more often, and therefore occasionally want to try something different, and no one wants to be out there as the potential butt of criticism for being the restaurant with no healthyfare! The 24-hour news cycle keeps the pressure on!

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Alexandria, VA: When I go out for meals, I always order something that I can't prepare (or won't prepare) at home. I go our at least five times a week and did a full week of new restaurants (including lunches, as well as dinners when I could) during the recent Restaurant week, so I'm not an infrequent restaurant goer.

My observation is that most restaurants tend to equate healthy with plain or simple, with no sense that people are looking for "special" as well. Making something special might involve ingredients that are not commonly available at a neighborhood supermarket or processes that one cannot normally do at home ~ like tandoori, which requires extreme heats one does not normally have in your home kitchen.

Many health conscious cookbooks also have absolutely stunning pictures of everyday foods that are only attractive because of the photography. There's nothing special about the dishes...

I'm beginning to believe that we need to focus on creating more enticing and interesting "healthy cuisines" (to steal a phrase is generally a misnomer in freezer case products...) which not only are health conscious, but also fun and interesting to eat.

Moosewood was a start some 30 years ago for the vegetarians. How about a similar movement for those who would like to experience beneficial gastronomy?

Thanks!

Margaret Webb Pressler: Actually, I think to some degree restaurants are trying. I heard over and over when reporting this story that restaurants see the "taste profiles" of diners becoming more sophisticated. I actually think maybe the casual dining chains are doing this a little ahead of the types of places you seem to frequent. I'm looking at the Applebees healthy menu and it has Teriyaki steak skewers and grilled tilapia with mago salsa. The pictures look good; can't speak for the food. But they don't look plain. Still, I do agree that in general restaurants need to put MUCH more effort into making healthy food interesting and yummy. We'd order more of it then, wouldn't we? I think vegetarians have much the same problems in restaurants.

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Wash DC: It seems to me that a great way to reduce the calories in a Ruby Tuesday's meal is to make the portion size smaller but leave the recipe intact and tasty. Has this been explored? I love Cheesecake Factory's food but never go there because the portions are so huge they overwhelm me. I would LOVE it if said restaurants allowed diners to order different sizes of meals, like you can with a soda.

Margaret Webb Pressler: I hate to tell you, but Ruby Tuesday TRIED to cut down on portions and three months later made a rare admission to stock analysts that it had made a mistake in portion sizes. It made people mad. See, people want lots of food for their money. Maybe not you, but everyone else does. That's part of the obesity problem: our portion threshholds are totally out of whack.

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Washington, DC: Dear Ms. Pressler,

Fast food has an addictive quality, as the human body craves fats and sweets. On top of that, kids in the country are socialized by advertising to desire fast food and sweet food. In such a context, should it be a surprise that Americans cannot fight the urge to gorge on unhealthy foods?

Margaret Webb Pressler: I am frankly always amazed that people feel when they have kids they simply have to go to McDonald's. I'm not saying people shouldn't go there, for sure, but it just seems to be such a cop out. There are lots of other places to take kids. Fast food gives us two things that we realy like as adults, too: fast and cheap. We put a high priority on those elements these days. It's an uphill battle getting Americans out of this habit (not that the fast food chains want them out of this habit!)

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Adelphi, MD: Problem is that I think that most people who try to consistently maintain a healthy diet don't eat at restaurants as much as the overall public and when they do, they are more likely to be "splurging" with something they wouldn't normally eat.

That being said, I know that I might eat out more often if I had better access to nutritional information and better ability to tailor my meal (for example, substitute my burger roll for a whole grain wrap or get veggies rather than fries, allow me to put my condiments on myself by default, etc.). I would think this would be far easier and more profitable than maintaining a handful of specifically healthy menu items which aren't that appealing anyway.

Margaret Webb Pressler: See Ruby Tuesday answer above. The chain tried it, customers defected quickly because the calorie counts scared them. Might scare you too.

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Silver Spring, MD: I can partially buy the argument that restaurants don't feel the need to offer "healthy" food options when people won't order them (although I think there's an argument to be made that the restaurants are in part to blame for encouraging and training customers to get in the habit of ordering things that are bad for them). But what there is no excuse for are the hidden health hazards that the food industry seems determined not to fix. When I make and eat a hamburger and fries it's an educated choice, I know it's high in fat and calories, and I have chosen to deal with the consequences. Years ago that used to be true when ordering the same thing in restaurants. But now not so healthy comfort foods that you order in a restaurant are full of soaring levels of trans fats and sodium that didn't use to be in the dishes and wouldn't be in them if you made them at home. But restaurants not only don't care about what these hidden dangers are doing to people, they go out of their way to make it impossible to get accurate information so customers can make an honest choice. Most people don't realize how much higher the levels are in commercial food and those that do are kept from finding out what they'd like to know. They can whine all they want about consumers not really wanting healthy options but it rings hollow when they sabotage them at every step.

Margaret Webb Pressler: That's why so many advocates--and a growing number of lawmakers--are pushing foodservice companies to show clearly what the fat and calorie counts are.

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Ithaca, NY: I would have liked to have seen CSPI comment on your article on healthy menu choices (they did comment on the soda in schools issue in your other article). I've found that CSPI generally ignores the critical factor raised by your article: many people don't like healthier foods, and don't buy them. For example, CSPI's recent paper on sodium content in processed foods didn't mention taste anywhere, basically; they certainly didn't taste test a thing, rather they used variances of sodium content amongst foods in the same broad category as "evidence" that sodium levels could be reduced. But as your article today points out, perhaps the less-healthy choices are out there for a reason: because they sell.

What has the reaction of the CSPI's of the world been to the phenomenon you wrote about today? Do they think it's Applebee's fault that their weight watchers line doesn't sell well?

Margaret Webb Pressler: I did in fact speak to CSPI (Center for Science in the PUblic Interest) and they had some good comments, but didn't really advance the ball much for what I was writing about, so I used other sources to comment from the outside. As to salt, CSPI has a very specific agenda: nutrition.

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Gaithersburg, MD: How much success has McDonalds had with their fruit and walnut salad? They seem to have been marketing it pretty heavily lately. Has it boosted their sales at all?

Margaret Webb Pressler: It's great PR, for sure. McDonald's is tyring to, and succeeding at, become the fast food choice for moms and kids. This is aimed squarely at that demographic. But don't think for one minute that it's made a teeny weeny dent in sales of the double cheesburger.

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Silver Spring, MD: RE: Smaller portions. Some restaurants do have different sizes for lunch and dinner. Why not make the lunch size available all the time? Or, give people a choice of small (cheaper) or regular? Obviously wouldn't work with all meals but could with many.

Margaret Webb Pressler: Well, because they can charge more for dinner sizes, yet the increaed food costs are negligible, so restaurants make more money. That's the reason sizes have been going up all around: coffee, popcorn, cheesecake, you name it.

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McLean, VA: Hi Margaret!; I think we eat very healthy at home, so when we go out to eat, we tend to splurge (or not eat as healthy). Recently, while on vacation at the beach, I announced to our family "when we get home, there are no more fries!;" Seemed like we were eating french fries at every meal...

Margaret Webb Pressler: Gets yucky after a while, huh? You are like lots of other people. I think there is hope in the industry that because poeple are making more of an effort at home to eat sensibly, it will rub off on our children and when they grow up and go to restaurants, they won't WANT to splurge the way we do. As one consultant said to me: this is all about the children, because we are done. Sad, but maybe true????

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Reston, VA: I have recently become a vegetarian and I am shocked at the lack of vegetarian options available at some restaurants. I try very hard to be accommodating and not pushy about my decisions, but I like for there to be at least a few options - even if it's soup or salad! It's insanely difficult to even find a salad without meat on it these days! Thank you to BK , Ruby Tuesdays, and the other places who at least offer a veggie burger option!

Margaret Webb Pressler: I agree completely. I think most restaurants offer completely lame vegetarian entree alternatives. But it's a situation where they are just not catering to a tiny audience for the sake of serving the many. In their defense, it is hard to make money on something that doesn't sell much because of the food costs involved, etc. Hope it changes. Good luck.

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Boston, MA: This information didn't surprise me at all. The vast majority of people don't WANT to take the stairs or eat healthier, smaller portioned food. That's why you always see overweight people taking an elevator two floors while talking about "having to go to the gym" and sucking down a huge coffee coolatta. We're lazy and we want our hamburgers big and juicy. I just feel bad for these kids whose parents feel "pressured" into bringing them to McDonalds. That's why you're a PARENT. YOU are in charge, not your child.

Margaret Webb Pressler: There are lot of people who agree with you. There are lots of people trying to change that behavior cycle without being on a soapbox about it and just turning the audience off. The bottom line, of course, is we have to care about what we eat and what we feed our children before our behavior will change and before restaurants will really get a good response from their low-fat, low-carb low-whatever efforts.

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Frequent Traveler: A previous poster said "I know that I might eat out more often if I had better access to nutritional information and better ability to tailor my meal." I travel 3 weeks out of each month so, as you can imagine, I eat out ALOT! You can tailor your meal. Ask for sauce on the side, ask how they cook the meal, request a lower fat side. It can be done. I have lost 20 pounds in the past 4 months and most of the time was eating in restaurants. You have to want to do it and not choose the "bad" food.

Margaret Webb Pressler: Restaurants have become AMAZINGLY flexible. They want your money, you know, and they'll get it any way they can. Lots of execs told me they are seeing more people order like you, but it's still a small trend. Maybe they could make a statement on their menus just to suggest this is possible. Still, though, that temptation tends to beat people down in the willpower department.

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Veggie burgers and being a veggie on the road: The BK veggieburger tastes fine ... but it's actually a morningstar burger - like you find in the supermarket freezer section. (I just confirmed this online). So I'm thrilled they're working on their own.

I'm a veggie often on the road. This can be a challenge in the heartland of this great country. I was quite an exotic beast when working in Albany, GA on a project for Cooper tire. The travel section did a great article on this a while back.

Margaret Webb Pressler: Thanks for the added info!

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McLean, VA: The problem with decreasing portion sizes comes when the restaurant does not also decrease prices. I, too, hate being given so much food, but I would rather be given that much food and take some home in a doggie bag then pay the same amount for less food. When restaurants make portion sizes smaller because it's what "the consumer wants" they have to remember to lower prices, too. We're not stupid. We're not just going to pay the same amount for less food.

Margaret Webb Pressler: The price/portion equation is a complicated one, and believe me, there is lots of thought in each decision. The problem is that smaller portion sizes have just as much labor involved and basically the same food costs, so if htey lower the price, they lower their profits. It's not thinking you're stupid; it's trying to be smart about business. But it does trap us in this terrible cycle, doesn't it?

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McDonald's Comment:: One reason that the double cheeseburger is "so popular" is that it is on their $1 menu, as is a crispy (fried, not grilled) chicken sandwich. Value menus tend to have unhealthy choices--exception--yogurt fruit parfait.

Margaret Webb Pressler: You're right. That's why they sell so well. Price wins out every time. So does speed. Healthy just isn't important enough to us, yet. Eating healthy doesn't give the diner immediate gratification. Speed and cheap does.

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Washington, DC: What do you think it will take for people to stop eating the mammoth portions and at the fast food restaurants?

Margaret Webb Pressler: I think if calories and fat were mandated to be on menus, you'd see portion sizes come down in a hurry, because that would be one way to keep the calorie counts down!

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Friendship Heights: I eat out at least 10 times per week, about 60-40 lunches/dinners and am not "splurging" when I go out. At the same time, I've been on Weight Watchers for the past 10 months and have lost 27 pounds. I love it when a restaurant offers healthy and interesting options, but I guess I'm in the minority. I was sad to see today's article. I've actually gone to Ruby Tuesday's specifically because they offered nutritional information (I'd never been before) and started going to Applebee's because of the Weight Watchers menu. They gained my business, over say, Cheesecake Factory, which in addition to the obscene portions, refuses to post nutritional information on their website.

Margaret Webb Pressler: I get irritated when I can't find nutritional info, too, though frankly I'm motivated enough to look for it and most people aren't. As to your frequent dining out and weight loss together, you are DEFINITELY in the minority, but good for you!

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Springfield, VA: In the soft drink article, the restriction is on "full calorie" soda -- does that mean diet soda is OK? We need to stop promoting artificial color and flavorings as "healthy alternatives" and begin teaching our kids to eat closer to the source. It has been proven that artificial coloring et al can make children more irritable and magnify ADD/ADHD etc. We really have no idea the damage that these additives are doing to our kids!

And yes, I know that I can pack my kids own lunches...but they see all the other children with blue yogurt and diet soda and then feel left out...

It is really to the schools benefit for the kids to eat more heathily, so why don't more schools do it!

Margaret Webb Pressler: Yes, diet soda is lumped in as a healthy beverage. So are sugary "fruit" drinks with anything more than 5 percent fruit juice. Nutrition advocates hate this, too, and are banging the drums, but is anyone hearing???? Not sure.

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Nags Head, NC: With the rise in popularity of the high-fat, low sugar/glycemic index diets (which seem to make sense anthropologically and historically), and even in the face of the controversy surrounding them, I think "low-fat" shouldn't be automatically equated with "healthy." PS: The Atkins diet remains popular; it's the company formed after his death to sell pre-packaged Atkins foods that has gone bankrupt. ~Peter H.

Margaret Webb Pressler: Healthy is a complicated topic, for sure, and lots of restaurants and diet books have very different takes on what healthy is. Best bet? Moderation. But even that is hard to do with the plenty that we find on our plates when we go out to eat.

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Atlanta, GA: The BK veggie burger is certainly edible. I haven't eaten a Whopper (or any other burger) in years but the veggie has a somewhat similar taste due to the condiments. The question that comes to mind, however, is what is the fat content of a BK veggie w/o mayonnaise? Also, for the Taco Bell Bean Burrito another edible non-meat fast food. I mean, just because these fast foods don't contain meat are they good for you?

Margaret Webb Pressler: It's a worthy endeavor to go to these chain's websites and cruise through the complete nutrition guides. They all have them, and they are all full of interesting suprises--both in what IS rediculously fattenting/bad for you and what ISN'T. Try it.

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McLean, VA: I think posting the calories is crucial. I remember my sons being shocked to learn (on a news program) that a Starbucks Frappacino had over 800 calories!;

Margaret Webb Pressler: Oh, man, it does?

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Getting healthy food to be as 'tasty': I realize this is a radical step - but what about re-training our tastebuds. Better yet, what about exposing our children to healthy food! They might even like it - could it be as simple that? This is why what children eat at home and in school is so important. I don't believe fast food is addictive, but I do think that our culture's eating habits affect what we think is good food. But we can change that - healthy food is good. I realize this is not an easy concept - but consider the flavor and the sweetness as a blueberry. Surely that's tasty! I LOVE fruit and veg, they're full of flavor - you just have to get used to it. You can do it!

Margaret Webb Pressler: You know what, though? Fruits and vegetables are expensive. I got a lengthy email this morning from a woman who is a secretary at a church in florida who's budget for food has been slashed by rising gas prices and she was telling me about her struggle to afford the more expensive healthy foods not at restaurants but at supermarkets. Being able to eat healthy is a little easier for those with more money, regardless of motivation. Sad but true.

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RE: Portion sizes: Just because they give you double (or more!) the amount of food you are supposed to eat, they do not force it down your throat. Control is the main key. Plus, you can order a meal and tell them to bring half wrapped up in a doggie bag to take home. OR, order one meal for 2 people and side salads. People need to take responsibility for themselves and stop blaming others!

Margaret Webb Pressler: There have been some interesting studies about how children are born with a natural stop mechanism in their appetites, but that can be overridden when a kid is emerging from the toddler years by being exposed to bad eating habits. Once it's gone, it's really hard to get it back without effort. Makes you think.

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Arlington, VA: I agree that restaurants should give diners the option of smaller portions. I think it's terrible that adults aren't allowed to order off the kid's menu. I hate paying for food that I know I'm not going to eat.

Margaret Webb Pressler: I often wish i could order off kids menus. I do that at Baja Fresh and the little burritos are just perfect. Plus it comes with milk and applesauce--for cheap!

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Bowie, MD: It starts early. My son is 2 1/2 and I've always packed a healthy lunch for him at daycare, which he's always eaten. He's just starting to notice that some other kids are getting cookies, chips & candy instead of the fruit & veggies I send. He's starting to refuse to eat the veggies he used to love.

Our daycare has sent out the message to send healthy foods, but it takes time to make something good instead of tossing a Lunchables into a bag.

Margaret Webb Pressler: Good point. The messages from schools and daycares don't make it easier. I think it's pretty clear, though, that kids who continue to get the kind of guidance you're giving will have a healthier outlook on food in the future, even if they covet the cookies at school. I hated my mother for not packing Twinkies in my lunch. I remember that so clearly. Now I'm an adult and they're in the vending machine just 40 feet from my desk, but i've never had even one.

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Hooray for Smaller Portions!: "See, people want lots of food for their money. Maybe not you, but everyone else does. That's part of the obesity problem: our portion thresholds are totally out of whack."

But I think DC's point was that if we could get less food AND pay less money, a lot of us would go for it. I don't really want to spend a lot of money knowing I'm going to have to eat it all (or waste it) and get fat in the process.

Margaret Webb Pressler: and my point was they can't do that and still make money. A smaller portion costs just as much to make in labor and food costs as the bigger portion. But you pay less. They make less. What business wants to do that? THAT is the problem.

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Laytonsville veggie: I have tried to keep vegetarian for 4 years now. I would just warn folks that they INSIST that they get a BK veggie burger. I nearly choked when I really got a meat burger! Why can't they have a "value meal" veggie burger when the Boca/Morningstar burgers cost about 60 cents each in bulk, and about 70 cents in the supermarkets? Also, why does McD's have to charge over $3 for the "fruit buzz" apple, walnut and yogurt plate they are advertising.

Finally, why can some fast food chain, Kraft, or entrepreneur create vegetarian fast food chain? Even with cheese and yogurt items? The vegans or raw foodist may not like this but at least 10% of the nation's population can enjoy it? There is money to be made here!!!

Margaret Webb Pressler: I don't know, really. I think if there were a good business to be had there profitably, it would've been done. It really is hard to run a restaurant or any retail business that caters to a small segment of the population. It can be done, but it's much much more difficult. Add to that the fact that putting vegetarian on the front of the door is going to turn off lots of poeple, and you'res starting with lots of big hurdles to jump.

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Adams Morgan, DC: In trying to eat sensible meals in chain restaurants and fast-food spots, these are the two things that helped me the most:

First, take five minutes to go online, look up the menu (and nutrition stats if they exist) of a place you'll be eating and strategize. Pick the healthiest option that looks good to you and stick to it when you walk in the door and place your order.

Second, don't be afraid to defy convention!; So what if you've never in your life seen anyone ask a waiter to put half of the huge meals they serve into a to-go bag at the beginning, not the end, of a meal. It helps, so try it. Same with asking for fruit or vegetables instead of fattier sides. You might think you're rocking the boat a little, but it is worth it.

One last thing: a smaller portion at the same price might seem like a bad deal, but keep in mind that not all "costs" are economic ones. You pay a price with your well well-being when you eat too much junk. Restaurants may not downside entrees and lower prices, but you can (again, don't be afraid to swim against the stream!;) say when you place your order: can you give me only half the amount of fries you usually serve up? Can you make that ice cream cone about half the size you normally do? You'll get some puzzled looks at first, but it pays off. Not in dollars, but in good health, a confident sense of self-restraint, and (hopefully) inches around the waist.

Margaret Webb Pressler: Good thoughts. Thanks for sharing. I've done some of those things too and I'm sure others have also.

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New York, NY: I want to second the complaints of the vegetarians in this chat. I'm an omnivore, but was horrified one evening when dining out at an Applebee's (in the Bronx) with a vegetarian friend: the only vegetarian menu item was the fried mozzarella sticks. Even my favorite barbeque joint has a vegetarian entree!; We asked the server if we were just missing something, and she said, in effect, no. We could request a salad or a pizza or pasta with no meat, but otherwise my friend was out of luck. My friend, a flight attendant, has learned to be flexible about meat overseas and so ordered a chicken dish, but we both agreed that this was outrageous. Not that vegetarian automatically means healthy (fried mozzarella sticks being Exhibit A for the prosecution), but come on!; Most of the meat dishes were drowned in fatty sauces or cheese, too. I felt like there was nothing healthy on the menu (I'm allergic to fish, so that's not an option). How hard is it to create something cheap, tasty and healthful?

Margaret Webb Pressler: Hard, apparently.

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Boston, MA: I think the problem is that for most people, there is no connection between the cals they consume and the amount of activity needed to burn them off. What put the fear of God in my wife was when she would be dragging herself off the floor after a workout, and then she would look at a slice of chocolate cheesecake and think "If I eat this, I've basically wasted my workout".

Margaret Webb Pressler: Maybe there's some way to harness that moment to keep people on the straight and narrow??? Good point.

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Somewhere, OK: I have probably eaten more at McDonald's since they came out with the fruit and walnut salad, than I had in my entire life. I usually just eat the apple slices and grapes. The yogurt is not very good. It would be better if the walnuts were plain instead of candied. I also think the price is high, but at least it is a healthy option when I am in a hurry.

Margaret Webb Pressler: And at least you can afford it. Lots of people can't, so they order a $1 cheeseburger.

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Hartford,CT: Should companies be subsidizing healthy options for their employees in their cafeterias e.g. 99 cent daily fruit/veggie combos for lunch? True multigrain bagels for .25 for breakfast?

Margaret Webb Pressler: Lots of advocates think this would make economic sense for companies to do because it would make for healthier employees!

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DC: But it is possible for restaurants to have tasty better for you food - Rock Bottom Brewery has a spinach salad with buffalo that is really yummy, and not something most people would make at home.

Margaret Webb Pressler: Sure it's possible. It's all about how much they get ordered.

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Laytonsville veggie: I forgot to mention in my first post...my Wendy's vegetarian value meal is the $1 potato with hotsauce/salsa (skip the butter, sour cream vegan style), and a side salad. You can do it even on travel in the middle of the country...

Margaret Webb Pressler: Good point. Thanks for adding that.

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Portion sizes: I just wanted to reiterate that the portion size issue from a restaurant's point of view is not as easy as some would make it seem. The cost to a restaurant of providing a half-size portion is not 50% of the price of the entree. Food costs as a rule of thumb should be a third, 40% on the high end, of a dish. There's a lot of money tied up in paying the staff, printing menus, real estate, etc etc that is not proportional to the size of an entree. So if you take a $10 fettuccini alfredo and cut the size in half, the actual food cost might go from $3.50 to $1.75. So you could sell the dish for $8.25 at the same profit level, a price savings that would probably anger a lot of folks posting here who would appear to think that the dish should sell for $5 instead. Conversely, a restaurant may find that they can sell $8 lasagna for $10 if they make it 25% bigger... that's a big bump in profit for them.

So anyway half a portion is only half the cost to the restaurant if the patron uses half a table, half a fork, half a waiter, half a napkin...

Margaret Webb Pressler: Obviously and experts take on what I tried to say quite a bit more ... uh ... simply. Interesting stuff, folks.

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High cost of fruit and veg: There was a study in the UK that suggested that fruit and veg doesn't have to cost more, but a. people don't know how to get good deals for it and b. people feel it takes too much time in preparation. It was these things, rather then the actual need to spend incredible amounts of money on fruit and veg that were the biggest barrier. I think I've heard the same thing in the US - certainly discussions of this on NPR!

Margaret Webb Pressler: Once again, it's about time and money!

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Washington, DC: Are there any connections between the fast food and restaurant industry with the weight loss industry?

I think consumers would pay a little extra to see healthier items offered, just as we have for other things like gasoline, movie tickets, amusement parks...

It seems like there must be something else holding restaurants back because some large chains that focus on healthy and organic - like Whole foods - do seem to succeed.

Margaret Webb Pressler: Whole Foods succeeds, yes, but on a MUCH smaller scale than Giant or Safeway, our other big supermarket chains.

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Dupont Circle, DC: Quick question -- is making nutritional information for products publicly available on your corporate website voluntary or mandatory? I ask because I love Chipotle Burritos and always thought they were healthy for me. I tried to find out the calorie content on their website but they don't list nutritional information. Some other websites have suggested that a standard Chipotle burrito clocks in at over 1000 calories!; If it's true that's 50% more than a double whopper with cheese!;

Margaret Webb Pressler: Voluntary. That's what some people are trying to change. Corner Bakery didn't have nutirtion info the last time I looked, too, and that worries me!

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Arlington, VA: About a healthy fast-food chain: Portland, Oregon --- probably the most vegetarian-friendly, healthy-eating city in the country --- in the 1990's had a popular chain of really healthy (not lard, nothing fried, etc) Mexican places called Macheesmo Mouse. They had lots of black beans, hip architecture, fresh salsas, and people loved them. But not enough. While they may still be in business (not sure), I know their stock took a dive not long after they went public and many of the shops in the chain were forced to close.

Like Applebees: a good effort at a healthy option that the marketplace just wasn't able to support. And if it can't work in Portland, I don't know where it could!

Margaret Webb Pressler: See?

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Margaret Webb Pressler: Okay, folks, I'm afraid our time is up and even though I've been typing FURIOUSLY I've left bunches of questions unanswered. Sorry about that, but we'll definitely be following this subject closely in the future. Thanks for coming!

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