Last summer, I went with friends to the Hard Rock Café in New York City. When we opened our menus I was surprised to see calorie counts next to each food. I quickly changed my ordering plans after noticing the high-calorie dressing in the Asian chicken salad and went for a surprisingly healthier route, chicken fajitas.

Since July 2008, New York City health department regulations have required restaurants with 15 or more establishments nationwide to post calories on menus and menu boards. Starbucks, Applebee’s, Dunkin’ Donuts and California Pizza Kitchen are just a few of the restaurants that the law affects.

California, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Chicago and Philadelphia have all followed suit and enacted calorie-posting requirement laws.

According to a New York Times article last month, a study conducted by several New York University and Yale University professors in July 2008 found that 28 percent of these customers said it influenced their decision of what to order. Ninety percent said they were making healthier decisions due to the calories available on the menu. But the study found that people ordered slightly more calories than the typical customer had before the labeling law went into effect.

While that study does not bode well for the regulations, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released data that shows the regulations are having the desired effect: People purchased foods with fewer calories at nine of 13 fast food and coffee chains included in their observations.

The study started in 2007 with 10,000 customers at 275 locations, with another 12,000 customers being surveyed this year, according to a National Post article from Oct. 26. It also showed that at McDonald’s, Au Bon Pain, KFC and Starbucks, on average customers bought food containing 106 fewer calories than they did when the calories were not readily available.

New York City’s research showed there were positive effects due to the regulations, and reasoned that its study was more representative of actual dining habits because it included more people over a longer period of time and was not limited to outlets in low-income neighborhoods, according to the National Post article.

While there is no pending legislation or regulation to have the calorie legislation in Onondaga County, the New York State Assembly and Senate have bills in committees that will be reintroduced in 2010. If that legislation were to pass, it would affect restaurants in Syracuse, so students would be able to see how many calories they are consuming at all their favorite chain restaurant in the area, such as Pita Pit and Dunkin’ Donuts.

In Nassau County on Long Island, legislation was recently enacted that mirrors the New York City regulations. At the hearings for the bill, representatives from the American Heart Association and American Cancer Society came to the legislature in support for the legislation.

‘New York is unfortunately getting fatter, and it’s been increasing now for the second year in a row,’ said Robin Vitale from the American Heart Association at the hearing. ‘(Obesity) is obviously a huge concern of ours, it being the number one cause of death in our country, in New York and, of course, here, in Nassau County as well.’

Dr. Jai Grewal from the American Cancer Society also spoke at the hearing, informing the legislators that The American Cancer Society fully supports the menu labeling as a method to help address the urgent problem of obesity and actually decrease the incidence of preventable cancers.

‘Children are now suffering from poorer nutrition. On a typical day, approximately one-third of the children in the United States eat fast food. These calories pack on an additional 6 pounds per child, per year,’ Grewal said.

One of the purposes of the bill is to better inform consumers of what they are putting into their bodies. It’s clearly necessary since so much of the population is overweight. This is one method to slow down obesity levels and better educate the public.

Rebecca Toback is a sophomore magazine journalism major and the health columnist. Her columns appear every Thursday. She can be reached at rltoback@syr.edu

Published on November 4, 2009 at 12:00 pm