Healthful Restaurant Meals Campaign

Restaurants That Support Healthful Meals

Healthful Restaurant Meals Campaign

Print out a PDF version of this sheet that you can take to restaurants

Any of us who follow the media know that restaurants have been criticized for sometimes choosing less than the most healthful ingredients for their meals. We’re encouraging restaurants to use more healthful ingredients in their meals.

The challenge: To encourage restaurants to offer at least one meal that is very healthful for its customers. That means made only from fresh, whole foods. If cooking oils or sugars are used in the meal, they should only be the highest quality, most natural oils and sugars.

Benefits for customers:
You will know that a restaurant you go to has at least one or more healthful meals that you can eat. You will also feel the satisfaction of helping restaurants provide healthful meals that other patrons can enjoy.

Benefits for restaurants:
If a restaurant can create one or more healthful meals, we’ll help get the word out and publicize them on our web site, FoodsForPeace.com. Customers will feel appreciated and will want to become long-term patrons at this restaurant. Restaurant owners can get a competitive advantage by And you’ll feel great knowing that you’re giving your customers the chance to eat a truly healthful meal.

In creating healthful meals, we have three food issues in mind (and you’ll find more information about each at our web site, FoodsForPeace.com):

1. No natural or artificial flavorings. Or, if the meal does contain natural flavors, at least make sure that you know what they are. We have discovered that natural flavors may be as unnatural as artificial flavors, and that some natural flavors may have MSG-like effects on people. The easiest way for restaurants to protect customers from natural or artificial flavors is to simply use fresh, whole foods that are not from packages. If restaurants do use packaged food that contains natural or artificial flavors, they can call the manufacturer to try learn more about what ingredients those flavors contain.

2. Choose more healthful cooking oils. Oils that have been refined or solvent extracted (like most commercially available corn, vegetable, canola and soybean oils, for example) don’t meet our guidelines for healthful meals. Solvent-extracted oils may use petroleum products for oil extraction, which may leave a residue in the oil. Moreover, these oils are bleached and deodorized, making for an inferior product. Some of the most healthful oils for cooking include extra virgin olive oil and cold-pressed sunflower oil or safflower oil. Any food distributor will sell virgin olive oil, which is one of the best options. And natural food distributors such as United Natural Foods feature healthful oil options.

3. Choose more healthful sweetener options. Healthful meals should avoid use of high fructose corn syrup as well as white sugar and artificial sweeteners (i.e. Nutrasweet, Saccharin) or non-organic maple syrup when possible. More healthful sweeteners include honey, agave nectar, Sucanat, organic maple, brown rice and barley syrups and other natural sweeteners.
You can help us and other customers out by filling out the following form on page 2 and faxing it to us at (831) 576-6601, or e-mailing the results to us at mail@foodsforpeace.com.

Our Healthful Meal(s)

Date:
Customer name:
If the restaurant offers a healthful meal(s), I’ll be thrilled to come back on a regular basis: Yes/No
I will tell my friends that this restaurant offers a healthful meal(s): Yes/No

Restaurant name:
Address:
Phone number:
Web site:
Comments:

Which meals does the restaurant serve that contain no natural or artificial flavorings, and only healthful oils and sweeteners?

Natural or artificial Flavors
____I know that there are no natural or artificial flavors in anything in this entire restaurant.

____I know that there are no natural or artificial flavors in the following menu items (list here):

Healthful Oils
For its healthful meal or meals, please either list the oil brand name, or indicate that the oil is cold- or expeller-pressed. Also, the oil should be unrefined or naturally refined. Virgin olive oil is one example of an oil that is unrefined. Cooking oils available from health food distributors such as United Natural Foods may also be unrefined or naturally refined.

Healthful Sweeteners
For its healthful meal or meals, please indicate which sweeteners (if applicable) the restaurant uses.

How often are the restaurant owners comfortable having customers coming in to ask this information? We recommend that this information is gathered every 90 to 180 days.
This form was filled out by (fill in your name):

You can learn more about healthful eating options on our web site, www.FoodsForPeace.com.