Claim Restaurants should be required to display nutritional information about the food they serve Reason This knowledge will help diners make healthy choices and reduce their risk of diet related health problems Write a response in which you discuss the e

The author has argued that disclosure of nutritional information should be mandatory because consumers can use the information to evalaute their choices and make salubrious decisions. However, resturants might distort the information they provide or the information might be crucial for the operation of their business, such as secret ingredients. In addition, diners might not bother reading the nutritional information or they might not care at all. Therefore, resturants should have the option to choose whether they intend to display the nutritional information of their products.
The same information can be presented in distinct formats to achieve different results. For example, resturants could use pie charts to present the amount of sodium and sugar in a hamburger because this would cause the amount of sodium and sugar to appear less when compared to other types of ingredients such as carbohydrates and protein. Unless consumers carefully discern this information, they could be misinformed and assume that the hamburger has a low amount of sugar and sodium and is not banal to health. The mandatory disclosure of nutritional information simply allows resturants to freely spin the information in their favor.
For some resturants, providing the ingredients of their products would be detrimental to their business because these ingredients could be secret recipes. In Spongebob Squarepants, the mythical recipe of the burger is prudently protected because the burger store could lose all its customers if competitors discovered the key to a delicious burger. Demanding resturants to provide the nutritional information risks forcing them to provide their secret ingredients and potentially jeopardizing their business.
Some resturants, such as cake stores and ice cream booths, are not known for providing healthy foods. However, consumers still flock to such places to satisfy their taste buds and reward themselves with a sweet dessert or a greasy burger. Patrons of these stores are unlikely to carefully read nutritional information provided by these stores because they already know they are not buying nutritious foods. Consequently, resturants should not be required to present nutritional information of their products because their consumers might not bother reading them. Even if they took the time to comprehend the information, they might still decide to indulge in the delicious foods. Providing nutritional information does not guarantee that diners will make health-conscious decisions.
Advocates for the mandatory disclosure of nutritional information could argue that the information could help consumers understand their daily intake. However, the daily intake could also be distorted to deceive consumers. For example, resturants could present the amount of sugar in each serving instead of the amount of sugar in each meal, and perfunctory diners are likely to skim over the information and falsely assume that the amount represents the amount of sugar in each meal. This might incenticize them to buy the meal because they believe that their sugar intake would be low. Therefore, the information might not help consumers make healthier choices because the presentation of the information could deceive consumers.
In conclusion, resturants should not be required to present the nutritional information of their products to their customers because competitors might steal their secret ingredients and faithful patrons might not care about this information. More importantly, the mandatory disclosure of information could actually result in resturants providing disinformation or using advantageous graphs to misdirect consumers, thereby causing them to actually make unhealthy choices.