Nitricate - To nutritionally educate

I think the Nutricate receipt idea is excellent, especially in restaurant settings. While I feel like the main problem with poor nutrition is due more to a lack of caring (or some sort of self-manipulation/justification) as opposed to lack of knowledge, this would still be very helpful. I can estimate the calories I've consumed, but this receipt would give a much more accurate idea of what you're eating. Does this information come on the receipt after you order, though? If so, that obviously wouldn't do much for your current meal, but would allow you to plan in the future.

Another problem I have with this receipt is that it only addresses caloric intake. I understand that space on a receipt is limited and it would probably be excessive to list all of the nutritional facts on a receipt anyways, as the main problem with American's eating habits is their caloric intake, but there is so much more to nutrition than that. Honestly, the biggest thing that bothers me about the average person's understanding of nutrition is that most people think "less is best"--the fewer the calories, the better--no matter what. This doesn't take a balanced diet or the quality of the calories into account at all. A lot of people view "health" as strictly a continuum of fatness-the skinnier, the better. Calories are important, as is a balanced diet, and most of the "fad" diets really push people away from a balanced diet. Consuming a balanced diet of 2000 calories a day is much healthier for you than starving yourself through a 600 calorie day, filled entirely with Slim Fast shakes and water. 1 large banana has ~120 calories, while a can of soda has ~140 calories, and almost all of the calories in both come from carbohydrates. In the eyes of someone who is just looking at calories, they are basically interchangeable. But a banana provides so many more benefits from nutrients (potassium, vitamin b, vitamin c, fiber) AND more beneficial sugars than soda, which essentially is all high fructrose corn syrup. Your body hates that stuff, its very difficult to use it for anything but flabby insulation. You'd probably have a difficult time finding someone who would say a can of Mountain Dew is just as healthy as a banana, but I think the example proves my point. Calories (and calories from fat/carbs/protein) don't always tell the entire story.

Even after that rant, I still feel like the receipt is a great idea. It at least gives people a simple opportunity to be less ignorant when it comes to the situation. To use a behavior modification example, the antecedent could be receiving a Nutricate receipt with your meal, then waiting for the people you are with to finish their meal. A possible behavior in this situation would be reading the receipt (either as a discussion topic or out of boredom) and realizing that your little midday snack of a grilled cheese sandwich and 32 oz Pepsi had 1300 calories, including 130% of your daily fat intake. A consequence may be keeping a closer eye on your diet, as your snack of a sandwich and a drink accounted for what should be almost 2/3 of your daily calories. The introduction of this Nutricate system by a manager would be an operant behavior which set the occasion for people to be more aware of their nutrition to cause people to select more healthy foods, which you could consider a target behavior. A discriminative stimulus could be when you didn't fit into your jeans that morning.

Obviously, advertising the calories of your food is (when, honestly, most restaurants attract people based on how good their food is, and due to evolution, we have developed a taste for things with high calories in order to survive when food was rare, which explains why everything that tastes good is "bad for us" [as I said earlier, "bad for us" is most people's way of saying "high in calories", which they view as unhealthy]) possibly a bad idea, as it may drive many people to other places which don't announce that their grilled cheese sandwiches have 900 calories. It may also attract customers who count calories, as this system would make that task much easier.

I think this would be a smart and responsible program to implement, but due to various reasons probably would never be widely implemented, as listing the calories would make people aware of what they were eating. This should only decrease the purchasing behavior of customers, which is not generally the primary intention of a business. Again, in behavioral terms: A=a restaurant hoping to make positive impact on health, B=implementing Nutricate system, C=decreased business (the removal of a pleasurable stimulus), which would be a punishment and lead to a decreased frequency of the behavior.