Calorie Count to Appear Soon on New York Menus

Did you hear that beginning March 31, all chain restaurants in New York City will have to prominently post calorie data on their menus?

Indeed, as noted here previously, the city’s Board of Health voted unamimously last month to require this information in the hopes that it will help combat obesity, as CNN and CSPI pointed out.

About 54 percent of adults in New York City are overweight or obese.

The new regulation applies to restaurants with 15 or more outlets nationwide – or about 10% of all New York City restaurants.

This move has the backing of a number of health groups. In fact, the The Obesity Society just came on board to show support.

Not surprisingly, New York’s restaurant lobby is against this requirement, and the group even filed a lawsuit suit last summer to stop it. (One of their arguments was that listing calories would make menus look too cluttered. Forgive me for smiling, but that strikes me as a somewhat ludicrous excuse.)

While it may be useful for New Yorkers — and people in other cities — to learn how many calories are in foods they’re thinking of ordering, I think it would be useful to know sugar content, too.

As I’ve said previously, calories just don’t tell the full picture.

But the big questions are these:

• Will this calorie information spur overweight or obese people to select options that are lower in calories?
• And if they’re eating at a fast-food restaurant in the first place, do you really think weight loss is a big consideration for them?

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. But don’t look for me at fast-food restaurants to gauge the effectiveness of this new regulation. (I just don’t hang out at those places.)

Hear Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s take on this matter.

Jennifer Moore contributed to this post for the SUGAR SHOCK! Blog