NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ranch 1, a popular Manhattan fast-food chain, is not shy about telling customers how many calories their customers will put on if they eat their grilled chicken sandwiches.

In fact, Ranch 1 lists the calories of its food on its napkins--and compares them with the calories in a McDonald's Big Mac and a Burger King Whopper. The New York chain promotes itself as a healthy alternative to other fast foods, and its sandwiches have about half the calories of its bigger rivals.

Subway, North America's biggest sandwich restaurant chain, is doing the same. Like Ranch 1, Subway's napkins detail the nutritional information of its leaner sandwiches versus those of the 800-pound gorillas of the industry, McDonald's and Burger King.

"We try to position ourselves as a healthier alternative to fast food restaurants. I thought that napkins were the best way to get the message out," said Ranch 1 marketing director Izabela Halifax. The differences are displayed on Ranch 1's red and white napkins, reflecting the shift in fast food toward diet-conscious and away from all-American burger-and-fries fare. The chains are part of a small but growing number of quick-service restaurants starting to flaunt the nutritional content of their food on order menus and other prominent places.

It's more than a marketing ploy. A campaign led by consumer and health groups is heating up to get the nation's leading fast food chains to list calories along with prices on their menus. The move would follow the lead of many packaged foods.

"We've suggested it be required for chain restaurants, not mom and pops, but chains of 10 or more outlets," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit nutrition watchdog group. "The restaurant industry hates the idea because they might sell less food."

Threat of lawsuits could speed up the movement. Last week, a 272-pound New York City man sued four major fast food chains, claiming that their food made him obese and damaged his health. The suit--which the restaurant industry has dismissed as frivolous--seeks to have chains label individual products with fat, salt and cholesterol content, as well as warn consumers of their health effects.

The trend also could gather momentum as the government and consumers search for ways to counter obesity, which is reaching crisis levels in the United States. More than 60% of American adults are overweight, and over 25% are obese, meaning they are 20% over their ideal weight and face real health problems.

The issue has been gaining urgency, as the rising costs of being overweight add to an overburdened healthcare system. Obesity-related health costs totaled $117 billion in 2000, according to the Health and Human Services Department. The US government estimates that one-third of all cancer and heart disease and up to 80% of diabetes could be prevented if people ate less, ate healthier food and exercised more.

Washington lawmakers are on the case: The US Senate on Tuesday is expected to introduce a bill that frees up more government money for educating people about the dangers of excess weight.

A 'MASS OF NUMBERS'

McDonald's and Burger King contend they have long disclosed the nutritional content of their meals on their Web sites, as well as on posters and brochures available in stores. However, consumer advocates say the posters do not go far enough.

"The posters are a mass of numbers, and they're very inconvenient to read. Most people don't want to lose their place in line looking at a poster," said CSPI's Jacobson. "I suspect very few people use that information, though it allows companies to say they are providing all that information to the public."

McDonald's, which also makes its nutritional content available through a toll-free number, "strongly believes in providing customers with complete nutrition information about all our products," said a spokesman for the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company.

A visit to a McDonald's in midtown Manhattan found no brochures available, even upon request. A staffer pointed to a poster by the front counter listing in exhaustive detail the ingredients, serving size, calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium and other information for each of the items on its menu.

Burger King, the nation's No. 2 hamburger chain, said that listing all the nutritional information on napkins or food packaging would not be feasible, given the variety of ways that customers can order their food.

"There's more than 1,500 ways to order a Whopper, for example without mayo or cheese that would reduce the amount of fat and calories," said a spokesman for the Miami-based chain. "We couldn't put all that information on a napkin because there's so many different ways to have it."

FULL-FLAVORED TASTE

Despite the concern about the health risks of consuming too much fast food, most consumers don't want to know the fat content of those fries they are eating, restaurant professionals argue.

"There's a perception among many chains that consumers don't really care," notes Bob Goldin, executive vice president of food service consulting firm Technomic in Chicago. "My feeling is that consumers who eat out want full-flavored taste. They don't want the calorie content in their face."

Many healthier items launched by the fast-food industry in recent years proved to be flops --witness McDonald's McLean Deluxe hamburger and Taco Bell's Border Lites--both of which were pulled after they failed to sell well, he noted.

Still, with the fast-food industry increasingly blamed for the country's growing weight problems, restaurants that do play up their healthier attributes could end up stealing away customers from the large chains.

"It doesn't necessarily make me want to eat here more, but it sure makes me never want to eat at McDonald's," said Hugh Kojima, a 28-year old investment banker in New York, eating a Subway sandwich as he studied a napkin.

"I knew that a Big Mac had a lot of calories, but 590 calories is like, really a lot. I would definitely think twice about going there again," he said.

Reference Source 89

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