Today (during a conversation that started with a discussion about the food served at meetings) a coworker mentioned that he used to make his meal choices based on cost instead of what was healthy. (bc people tend to serve cheap food instead of fruits etc at meetings) He said that he would just get the fries or chips with his meal instead of substituting a salad because it cost an extra dollar or two. Now he sees his health, and that of his family, as worthy of the investment.
There were three of us in this conversation and I was the only woman (just in case you are curious). We were ages mid 30s to 50.
I shared that I thought that this was a restaurant policy (or normal practice) that needed to be changed. He was right though. Have you noticed? Restaurants always charge more for the salad when you want to have it instead of a starchy, high calorie side item. They seem a little more friendly when it comes to substituting fresh fruit - but many don't have fruit available.
My other colleague mentioned side items at fast food restaurants - specifically in kids meals. He said that Arby's kid's meals come with fruit by default! If you want fries you have to ask for them instead. It was the only restaurant we knew of that made the healthy choice the easy one. He added that his kids don't even know that kids meals used to come with fries!
I say, "KUDOS to Arby's. I am indeed impressed."
PS - getting the salad is only a healthy choice if you don't load it up with high fat dressing!
PSS - writing this made me get a great idea for a policy initiative - little p - just getting restaurants to buy into offering the salad for free (in place of a high fat item) and then giving them public recognition for doing so....
