I admit that I’m watching the fight over nutrition information in restaurants with great amusement. Just as I’m watching the trans fat debates with great amusement.

How can I be so flip about these “public health measures” aimed at improving the health of Americans? Truth is, I’m not sure they’ll make any difference.

Over the past 20 years, Americans have enjoyed access to a growing amount of nutrition information on food labels and in magazines, newspapers, and recipes. In fact, I have been a source of some of that nutrition analysis. Yet Americans weigh more than ever. With all that information at their fingertips, shouldn’t Americans be able to select a weight-friendly diet? Will nutrition info on restaurant menus make a difference in what you order?

Now to my first question about keeping it simple– the food world is filled with really simple, easy-to-follow messages, like eating “5-A-Day” fruits and vegetables, getting “three daily cups of milk” (or yogurt), and “making half your grains whole.” Do they work? Well, we still don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables, drink enough milk, or eat enough whole grain foods.

If detailed doesn’t work and simple doesn’t work, what will? We nutrition communication folks have our work cut out for us!

A new Thai restaurant opened in our town a few months ago. Blessed with a grammatically challenged name, Thai Angel’s, a location on the former site of a bar known for drunken brawls, and limited marketing, the restaurant’s future seemed dim. One night our family decided to take a chance and eat at the restaurant. Not only was the food fabulous but the service was memorable. I decided to “adopt” Thai Angel’s as a word-of-mouth marketing project. I told every friend and colleague who would listen and brought 10 of my neighbors for our “Ladies Night Out.” A neighbor also reviewed the restaurant in her on-line newsletter, Plumberry Jam. As the old shampoo commercial went, “I told a friend and she told a friend and so on and so on and so on.” The restaurant parking lot is packed now — great success!