New York City: No Smoking, No Trans Fat and Now, Maybe ... No Calories?

Published on: October 31, 2006

New York City's Board of Health is considering a proposal that would require the restaurants in the city to list calories.

This proposal is not as hyped as the board's recommendation to prohibit trans fat - the chemically modified ingredient suspected of increasing the risk of heart disease. But much like the former, it is in response to the nation's rising obesity epidemic.

Passage of this proposal by the city would create the nation's strictest system of calorie disclosure in restaurants. Of course, this would apply only to restaurants with very standardized menu items and portions - this would affect mainly those same restaurants that have their caloric content already available on the web, on paper, or in other formats.

The proposal takes it a step further though and mandates that the caloric information be displayed next to the menu in font that is as large "as the name or price of the item." City officials estimate that only 10% of the city's restaurants would be affected. Of course for other restaurants who want to tout their healthier offerings this could be the start of something big.

This and the furor over the proposed trans fat ban will lead the discussions throughout the rest of the nation on the extent to which public policy should be used to revise people's diets. Voting on the proposal will happen in December and if passed would likely take effect July 1st.

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