Menu Calorie Counts: The Trend That May Be Coming to Your Area

by Kim, February 3, 2009 at 4:11pm

On a trip to New York City not too long ago, I was studying the menu in a restaurant when I noticed two rows of numbers. One, in dollars and cents, the price. The second took a double-take to decipher: calories. Like the warning label on a pack of cigarettes, the highest calorie counts lent even just the slightest whisper of warning before they were ordered anyway. Are calorie listings an effective way to reduce obesity?

The folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest think so. Considering that Americans eat out more and more frequently, the number of calories they can potentially assume at each unlabeled restaurant meal can total in the thousands per week (think of the large movie theater popcorn tub consumed without even realizing it during a move: 1600 calories).

It seems like I've been hearing a lot about local governments bearing some of the burden in making people healthier and greener. Calorie counts are now featured in other cities like San Francisco and Seattle. Cincinnati has asked people to eat less meat. Maybe that's not the right way to go in all cases, but the calorie counts in NYC seemed like a refreshing bit of candor to me. According to this MSNBC article written shortly after the calorie counts came to menus all over New York City, resident restaurant patrons sometimes reacted with gasps when they saw the wallop some of their favorite foods had been packing all along. Unlike the analogy with cigarette labels, the calorie numbers are everywhere you turn in the Big Apple, a place where cooking is often difficult in tiny kitchenettes and coffee shops are on almost every corner.  The 1000 calorie whipped coffee drink slurped down in a few minutes has begun to seem less of a dietary bargain to some. Though there are those, perhaps with rigorous workout schedules or fast metabolisms, that still order a large-size with extra cream.

The labels are still a far cry from criminalizing fattening foods altogether. Though some have said that the numbers emblazoned on their favorite foods have reduced their enjoyment in eating out, polls have shown that many Americans would welcome the labels in their area.

Download the entire pdf from the Center for Science in the Public Interest with facts about "Why Menu Labeling?"

Download pdf with petition to bring menu labeling to your area.

Now all we need is a comprehensive label bearing carbon impact and end-of-life/waste imapct...