Photo credit: Brian Minkoff- London Pixels licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
According to this article in the UK’s Daily Mail, food writer and TV chef Nigella Lawson doesn’t like loud music in restaurants because it “drowns out the taste of the food.”
There is published research showing that noise can affect food choices and change taste sensations, but that’s not why most people complain about restaurant noise.
Most of us complain about it because we want to have a nice conversation with our dining companions, and that’s just not possible in most restaurants today.
I’m old enough to remember when secondhand smoke made dining unpleasant. People complained, and science showed that secondhand smoke was a health danger. As a result, laws and regulations changed, and now almost all indoor spaces are smoke free.
There can be no rational doubt that noise is a health and public health hazard, and that sound levels in many restaurants are loud enough to cause hearing loss.
If enough people complain to their elected officials and demand regulation, restaurants can be made quieter, too
