Chicken tenders, a baked potato and a slice of carrot cake. A tad indulgent, perhaps -- but not too awful, right? In fact, a five-piece order of Arby's chicken tenders has 630 calories. A baked potato with butter and sour cream at Ruby Tuesday has 459 calories. And a slice of carrot cake at the Cheesecake Factory packs 1,560 calories.
After years of grand-slam breakfasts and ever-expanding dinner platters, we may not be eating calorie-blind for much longer. In a much-trumpeted move, New York City health officials voted Dec. 5 to bar all restaurants and bakeries, with minor exceptions, from using more than minuscule amounts of trans fats in their foods.
At the same time -- in a move that got far less attention -- they also voted to force chain restaurants that already offer nutritional information to display the calorie count of their fare on menus or menu boards -- hard-to-miss revelations that will probably come as shockers to many consumers at restaurants ranging from McDonald's to Denny's.
The move, to take effect next year, was hailed by the nutrition advocates, doctor groups and politicians who have spent years fighting for similar measures across the country against dogged industry resistance. Like smoking bans, they say, such a move could do wonders for people's health by cajoling them to clean up their eating acts while providing incentives for restaurants to offer healthier fare.
Cities and states around the country are watching closely to see what the effects are in New York City. Some may follow suit. Chicago is considering not only banning trans fats in restaurants that make more than $20 million a year but also requiring restaurants that make $10 million or more to print calorie, sodium and saturated fat counts on menus in sizes large enough to be easily read. Los Angeles and New Jersey are also considering restaurant labeling measures, and more are expected in the new legislative session starting next month.
"This legislation is really quite groundbreaking," says Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. He believes that health officials should take diet-busting menus as seriously as \o7E. coli \f7outbreaks.
"If you eat food and it makes you sick immediately, they're all over it," he says. "But if it kills you over a longer period of time, there has not been a precedent for jurisdiction. Now there is."
