New Haven Independent

Seems that in “The City” restaurants with 15 or more outlets have to post the calorie content of the food they sell. They can’t just hide it in a flyer hidden in the back. It has to be prominently displayed on the menu board so everyone can see it.

According to a recent survey, 54 percent of New Yorkers are either overweight or obese and the thinking is that if people knew what they were eating they just might make better choices.

In my wife’s case the large cup of instant chocolate pleasure had a price: 440 calories. To get rid of them: about two hours of brisk walking or just over an hour on a bicycle. She did the cost/benefit calculation and I have no doubt muttered something unprintable here under her breath and bought the black coffee instead.

California and Philadelphia have passed similar bills. Not without a lot of hue and cry from the restaurant industry I am sure, but you have to wonder why. No one is saying don’t eat bad food and get fat and have a heart attack and die young. Go ahead, that is your choice.

What Mayor Bloomberg and others are saying is that you should at least KNOW there are about as many calories in two jelly filled donuts (500) as in a bagel with cream cheese (470).

Say what?

Now suppose I told you that two quarter pounders with cheese has roughly the same amount of calories (1000) as Chili’s Turkey Sandwich without fries (870.) Or that a Starbucks blueberry muffin (500) has only slightly less calories than a Pizza Hut 6” pizza (640.)

Would you still eat the muffin or the turkey sandwich?

Now don’t confuse the issue by saying that one has more fat than another, or less carbohydrates or more fiber or whatever. And don’t tell me I can get the information “on-line.” When I’m “on-line” waiting to get lunch I’m not whipping out my phone to go racing around the internet trying to find out how many calories are in that “thing” I am contemplating eating. The issue is information and having it available to you at the time of purchase in order to make better decisions.

So why is it we don’t have a similar law here? It is not as if restaurants don’t have all this information available ‘cause they do.

So while legislators are trying to figure out what they want to do this year in order to not have to even think about how to handle this budget mess in which we are all a part, why not suggest they do something easy. It will cost virtually nothing and might actually result in a slightly healthier Connecticut.

After all, think about all the calories the restaurant lobbyists are going to have to spend creating all that hot air trying to tell you and me that a little information is bad for us, the economy and America.

This oughta be good.