Calories on Menus: Is It Good For New York?

A law forcing establishments to 'fess up to the garbage ingredients they use would have been much more beneficial to public health.

In other words "please support ending the freedom of restaurants in your area and have the government force them to print materials against their will".

Knowing the number of calories is good. Freedom is better. Having "diet police" force your will on innocent people is wrong.

Information is a good thing and this is definitely a good start. I see some arguing this isn't enough that they need to include the ingredient list, but do they honestly believe that ingredient lists will sway people away from food choices more than calorie content? I agree that it would be nice to have more information ,but let's be realistic the furthest most people go with there food choices is calorie content.

That is such a great idea. I would even like to see the actual caloric breakdown of protein/carbs/fat. That would be my dream! :)

I think this is really cool! Yeah, it does take away some freedom from businesses, but a business is gets paid because it adds some kind of value to the customer and giving me more information about what I'm eating adds value to me. Industries that package foods have to do it. I believe more people would be closer to their optimal weight if they could see what they're eating. You go, NY!

I second the question about how is a requirement to label(same as you'd get if it was a frozen dinner) taking away freedom? I mean, I'd be very very opposed to any legislation that said "all meals must be below x # of calories" but that's not what they're saying. just making labeling laws apply everywhere. which is the same argument for ingredients-maybe people have an allergy or medical condition where they need fat/calories, but can't tolerate a specific additive or ingredient. I think that would sway food choices easily. otherwise-is it really the job of a label to force people to eat a given way, or to force them to lose weight? no. it's just info to use if desired.

I am a fan of having the nutrition info on menus and menu boards. People can still eat what they want but if they want to make a healthier choice they are free to do so. No freedom is taken away.

Though I agree with Josh Barton that having just the calorie information is not enough, I completely disagree that we should not make it a requirement based on that argument.

When I was in New York City, I found the information VERY useful in making decisions on what to select. If I had a full nutrition label including a list of ingredients, it definitely would have been better. But I think the calorie list is a good start, particularly in identifying foods that have hidden sugars and fats that are not necessarily apparent. For example, how is it possible for a small bowl of steamed veggies to have 350 calories? Answer: The 1/4 stick of butter they put in it.

I simply do not understand the argument that businesses should not be force to provide this information and the consumer should educate themselves. I guess everyone should go to the various restaurants they patron and take their typical food selections home to their personal lab in their basement and do scientific experiments to determine every ingredient and nutritional make up.

RIDICULOUS

Typical.. liberal democrats trying to ram their version of a healthy lifestyle down people's throats by force of law.

Absolutely disgusting.

Very Good.

I think it's definitely a step in the right direction. Lots of people seriously don't have any idea as to what's in their restaurant food and they end up consuming way more calories than they intend to. Of course, there are people that simply don't care about caloric content and just want yummy food. When I was in college, my dorm cafeteria always posted the nutritional info on all the entrees that they served. At the beginning of the school year (when I was eating without abandon and DEFINITELY not counting calories), I often ate cheeseburgers, fries, fettucine alfredo, etc. When I decided to get healthier and got my Weight Watchers Points calculator, I was able to figure out how many Points were in my old favorites. Once I figured out that a cheeseburger had something like 25 points, I decided to make healthier choices.

Barry is absolutely right. He's said all that needs to be said.

This is just another on a long list of ugly precedents set by the NYS and NYC governments.

I don't live in New York but I wished my community would get with the program and require this also. Sometimes we forget just how many calories we eat. This would be like a little angel on your shoulder reminding you what your doing.

The point people are missing here is that people still have choice. If it were the case that people were banned from eating high calorie foods - in the same way that people are banned from taking drugs - then there's room for debate. But this is not the case, as it is the establishments that are being forced to display the calorie content of the foods they're offering.

Obesity is the result of long-term overspending on calories, often due to a lack of awareness about the extremely high energy content of the foods being pushed in our faces by aggressive advertising. People wouldn't buy something without knowing the price, so people shouldn't be expected to eat something without knowing how much running they're going to have to do to burn it off. As the post pointed out, I'd want to know if my smoothie, a supposedly healthy product, had 840 calories in it.

I live in NYC and I love the calories being posted. I was at TGI Friday's the other night and instead of ordering something I usually order there that contains around 1300 calories (I was shocked), I ordered one of the smaller portion meals that had only 500 calories. I'm a short girl who gains weight easily... my metabolism can't afford a 1200-calorie meal.

Some restaurants are doing this without any legislation to make them... I think that's the best. Maybe a voluntary organization that would "certify" that a restaurant's calorie count is accurate?

No matter what you do some people just aren't going to care but the rest of us would like some kind of accurate information, and I for one would prefer it not to be legislated. The health conscious know that french fries are a bad choice.

I don't see why establishments should have a huge problem informing the public about any information about their food, unless they had something to hide about their food. Like, it contained something awful, or they were deceptive in marketing food as 'healthy' when it really contains something incredibly unhealthy. It isn't really "diet police" I don't think, because caring about one's health and what goes into the body is different than being obsessive or over controlling.

This debate gives me a headache. Freedom happens when people have information and the opportunity to act on that information however they see fit. That includes shooting the staff at a fast food joint because there meal contains too many calories. But that is against the law in most countries. Laws restrict freedom, but society needs them in order to function. Passing laws that require restaurant to provide content information restricts the freedom of the restaurant, increases the freedom of the consumers and allows the world to keep turning as it always has.

There are no lives in the balance here. Just some extra signage.

I say knowledge is power, I can't see how it's a left wing conspiracy. I say it's damn good info to know if your small movie popcorn is going to have 600 calories, of your dinner has 1200 calories. If you make it yourself, you know what it is. I'm not saying I would never eat a meal of 1000 calories, but I wouldn't eat it often, and would have to compensate. Movie popcorn, never again. I can generally tell how heavy a food is when I'm eating it, but if you order a Thai iced tea, thinking that you're getting iced black or green tea, and get that sugar/cream/tea mix, it may not be what you want. If you read on your menu that your tea has 400 calories, maybe you'd drink water.

OTOH, it seems obsessive. Maybe it should be posted where you don't have to look if you don't want to. In many other countries, they don't even have low-fat salad dressings, and all our other strange diet foods, and they aren't all fat like us.

I wish every restaurant everywhere had to post nutritional info!

That old saying comes to mind: "If you have to ask, you probably can't afford it!" I'd wager it's accurate with calories also.

Demand essentially has put the calorie content on it. We forget that the government is meant to be 'we the people'. Local government is right there for you to get involved in, your votes count strongly. Enough new yorkers wanted this to push it through. Good for us.

Yes Thats is a good idea. Thanks a lot very good

I think that putting the calories on food is extremely helpful for those who are trying to eat healthy.

I remember seeing a kiosk at Pizzeria UNO's with all the nutrition information, so I checked a few of the foods that I used to eat. I was shocked at how many calories were in the indivual pizzas.

I think so many people order a dish thinking "it's not that bad", but that's because they underestimate how many calories are in each meal.