What every happened to small, medium, and large on a menu?
I now buy by price and photo since they don’t really tell you what you are getting on the menu.
For example, at Carl Jr. their burgers are named Famous Star, Double Star, Super star. and the Six dollar burger. What is the differnce??? The last one (six dollar) I can relate too. On top of this they don’t use the word regular anymore. It’s small, large, and super sized. I guess they use small rather than regular to make you fill inadequate.

I’m sure it wouldn’t cost much at all..unless of course you count the cost of restaurants losing all their customers.

If I wanted other people to dictate what I should be eating, I’d drop a couple of decades off my age and move back in with my mother. If I just wanted a random collection of the proper number of calories (even if I added the stipulation of being nutritionally balanced) I could produce that from the contents of my kitchen at a lower cost than will ever be available from a restaurant.

That’s not what we go to restaurants for.

My body and my health are my problem. Disclosure is good…but asking restaurant owners to supercede their customers’ health choices is not.

I’m sure it wouldn’t cost much at all..unless of course you count the cost of restaurants losing all their customers.

If I wanted other people to dictate what I should be eating, I’d drop a couple of decades off my age and move back in with my mother. If I just wanted a random collection of the proper number of calories (even if I added the stipulation of being nutritionally balanced) I could produce that from the contents of my kitchen at a lower cost than will ever be available from a restaurant.

That’s not what we go to restaurants for.

My body and my health are my problem. Disclosure is good…but asking restaurant owners to supercede their customers’ health choices is not.

the idea that you go to a restaurant strictly for nutrition is both unspeakably depressing and very American; it is like drinking wine to get drunk.

you must be kidding! first of all please consider that the food produced by the US (excluding the exports) is around 2400 cal per person. (for everyone, from little babies to elderly women with construction workers in between). consider what would happen to the food industry if the food remains uneaten. so, the finances of a singular restaurant is a too limited of a vision. therefore, philip, eating those large protions is your patriotic duty!! also, the amount to be eaten at each meal fluctuates wildly and i would never step in a restaurant where such a fascistic practice exists, and someone rations food for me. i can control my portions, thank you very much. lastly, lets stop thinking about meals as medical interventions.

Why do restaurants have menus?

So I can decide between the

Double Roasted Duck with Grilled Figs & Pistachio

and the …

Char-Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Potato Roesti, Bone Marrow & Red Wine Sauce.

When I was a little kid, my mother decided what was appropriate for me to eat. Now I’m a grown up and make my own decisions. I don’t want any restaurant/government to take over the mother role.

The individual should be able to make a meal choice based on their own nutritional/emotional/whatever needs/wants. The occasional excessive (Flourless Chocolate Cake with Baked Fig & Crème Fraiche Ice Cream) dish can be balanced by simple salads at another meal.

Fast food chain outlets sell manufactured products. It is probably reasonable that they provide a ingredient list and nutritional analysis.

But I don’t consider the list of products a menu, nor the establishment a restaurant.

I really can’t see this working in the real world. Visit a Chinese food buffet and watch people get the food and the answer will be obvious.

Interesting idea. You are trying to engineer restaurants into solving a different problem: “person is hungry and needs to eat appropriately for health”. Most restaurants are engineered to solve a slightly different solution: “person is hungry and cheap and wants a bargain.” Portion sizes (like the supersize phenom) have crept up over the years because people like to eat too much food. It gives them immediate pleasure, even if it causes later pain through disease. Consider the relative success of buffet restaurants. Yes, they kill their customers in the end, but slowly enough that it does not affect their business. Like cigarettes…

I think this would be cool. I need to lose a ton of weight. I honestly think I’d do it if they could give me something that tasted reasonably good and didn’t leave me starving afterward. I think lean meats, veggies but no fries or sugar — maybe some type of a wrap loaded with broccoli and other veggies, and lean chicken or steak would do it.

Most restaurants order food in portion-controlled sizes, i.e. pre-cut so they don’t have to do a lot of prep, or hire truly expert chefs. Providing you with just the right amount would be very costly. It would also be pointless: using normal guidelines for diet & exercise, you most likely wouldn’t have an appetizer or a drink – so in addition to higher cost, you’d be grossing less $ because people would eat less.

There’s nothing wrong with people overeating in American or any other society. Darwin will deal with it in due course.