In Videos: Josh Ozersky on ABC's 'Nightline' on Restaurant Calorie Labeling

Posted by Raphael, May 27, 2008 at 9:10 AM

Josh "Mr. Cutlets" Ozersky, editor of The Grub Street, was a guest on last Friday night's Nightline, in which he goes to Hill Country Barbecue to discuss whether calorie labeling in restaurants would affect people's ordering:

I'm a purist. I love it when it's incredibly complex and layered—when all the arts of gastronomy have gone into a dish. But it should all be based on the beauty and simplicity of animal fat.
I don't think calorie counts are going to stop people from ordering something that's really good.

Ozersky compares the calorie contents of a grande mocha Starbucks coffee with whipped cream and pound cake (800-plus calories), a Big Mac (540 calories), Au Bon Pain's Southwest Tuna Wrap (860 calories), a tropical fruit smoothie from Dunkin' Donuts (720 calories), and the biggest stunner—what he calls "sucker salads": the Pecan Encrusted Chicken Salad at T.G.I. Friday's, clocking in at 1,360 calories.

Ozersky: "Pecans seem healthy. They're nuts. Chicken is skinless, there are greens. It's colorful and healthy, yeah, but it's almost as many calories as three Big Macs."

When asked if calorie labeling would improve people's lives, Ozersky replies, "It doesn't make my life better. I have a freakish existence. But I'd say it probably makes for a better society."

Video after the jump.

Ozersky appears at 2:05 in the video, and a freaky fast-motion barbecue-eating scene appears at 2:14.

Josh Ozersky on 'Nightline'

Eat This, Not That: The Worst Foods in America
Calorie Info and Its Effect on Ordering

5 Comments

Tags: calorie labeling, diets, health, Josh Ozersky, Nightline, nutrition, TV

5 Comments:

Pecans are nuts, and they are healthy. This has very little to do with their caloric density.

Luther at 9:49AM on 05/27/08

@Luther: I don't think you can take to heart the caloric advice of a man who says, "The fat is the meat, and the meat is the vegetable."

Adam Kuban at 10:04AM on 05/27/08

"I think I'm immune to cardiac disease."???

Of course he would think that calorie labeling doesn't make his life easier.

wunami at 1:32PM on 05/27/08

#1 indicator for cardiac disease is not diet/food, and not exercise. It's genetics.

But the the food police don't gain power by admitting those sort of truths.

(I think calorie info is great)

peekpoke at 3:00PM on 05/27/08

There are plenty of "sucker salads" out there, and the public isn't very good at identifying them. Back in April 2007, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on a field poll about fat and calories in restaurant food:

The poll asked 523 registered voters to answer four seemingly simple questions: Pick out the dishes with the most calories, the fewest calories, the least salt and the most fat from among menu items from Denny's, Chili's, Romano's Macaroni Grill and McDonald's. (To take the quiz, and find out about that Caesar salad, see graphic.) Just as on the menus, the only information given was the name of the dish.
By any measure, the respondents flunked. Two-thirds answered all four questions wrong. And no one -- not one single person -- got all four right. The results were the same regardless of age, income, education or political party, according to the poll.

...

For the record, only three of 13 Chronicle Food section staffers who took the quiz answered two questions right; seven got one correct answer; and three earned zeroes. No one answered even three of the four questions correctly.

Marc at 1:33AM on 05/28/08

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