A tip for restaurants: smaller portions

WASHINGTON — The government is trying to enlist the help of the nation's eateries in fighting obesity. One of the first things on its list: cutting portion sizes.

With burgers, fries and pizza the top three eating-out favorites in this country, according to a study by The NPD Group, restaurants are in a prime position to help improve people's diets and combat obesity.

At least that's what is recommended in a government-commissioned report released Friday.

The report, requested and paid for by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), notes the importance of increased physical activity but focuses on the impact of "away-from-home foods."

The 136-page report prepared by The Keystone Center, an education and public group based in Keystone, Colo., said Americans spend nearly half their food budgets on food prepared away from home and get 32 percent of their calories from it.

Today, 64 percent of Americans are overweight, including the 30 percent who are obese, according to the report. It pegs the annual medical cost of the problem at nearly $93 billion.

Consumer advocates increasingly have heaped some blame on restaurant chains such as McDonald's. Although such fast-food chains bristled at the criticism, they started offering more salads and fruit.

The National Restaurant Association said the report, which it helped prepare but does not support, unfairly targeted its industry.

The report encourages restaurants to shift the emphasis of their marketing to lower-calorie choices and include more such options on menus. In addition, restaurants could change portion sizes and the variety of foods available in mixed dishes to cut calories.

Bundling meals with more fruits and vegetables also could help. And letting consumers know how many calories are contained in a meal also could guide the choices they make, according to the report.

About half the nation's 287 largest restaurant chains make at least some nutrition information available, said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

"If companies don't tell them, people have no way of knowing how many calories they are being served at restaurants," said Wootan, adding that Congress should give the FDA the authority to require such disclosure.

Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, the agency's acting head, said the FDA will not seek such authority.

"At this point in time, it's not a matter of more authority, it's using the authority we have," he said.

The report notes that the laboratory work needed to calculate the calorie content of a menu can cost from $11,500 to $46,000.

That makes it unfeasible for many restaurants, especially when menus can change daily, said Sheila Cohn, director of nutrition policy for the National Restaurant Association.

Instead, restaurants increasingly are offering varied portion sizes, foods made with whole grains, more diet drinks and entree salads to fit the dietary needs of customers, Cohn said. Still, they can't make people eat what they won't order, she added.

Material from Knight Ridder Newspapers is included in this report.