California Chains to Provide Calorie Counts

The Washington Post ran a piece yesterday on the news that Arnie signed a bill this week requiring chain restaurants to put calorie counts on their menus and indoor menu boards, making California the first state to enact such a law in the battle against the obesity problem in this country.

The law requires chains with 20 or more locations to post the information by 2011 -- egads, why give them that much time? That's two more years of "fat food" we don't have a clue about. The good news is that starting in July, restaurants and drive-throughs will have to offer menus that provide information on the calories, saturated fat, carbohydrates and sodium in each item. The violation is a mere $50-500 so not that much more than a speeding fine if they don't comply.

They say that junk food and soda have been removed or are being phased out of California schools yet I heard another stat that said 60-70& of California schools have Burger King or McDonalds fast food on offer. Americans clearly want the help - a 2008 Caravan Opinion Research poll showed that roughly 78 percent of Americans say they want fast-food and other chain restaurants to list nutritional information. (that they should give us nutritional information)......It's a start, but we need a lot more than this paired with a $50-500 fine to turn American's habits around.