Just wait until you see how many calories are in your dinner. The New York City Board of Public health is considering requiring the city's restaurants to list calories on their menus. Our initial thought was panic -- do we really want to know how many calories are in that delectable lobster roll from Pearl Oyster Bar or the addictive fried chickpeas at Tia Pol? Not really. But then we read the proposed regulation a bit more closely: "such a requirement can only be implemented for food items that are standardized with regard to portion size, formulation, and ingredients. Therefore, it is expected that the proposal would apply only to the approximately 10% of New York City food service establishments that serve food menu items in portions that are standardized for size and content." Whew.
The public hearing on the regulation is being held today, but if you miss it, you have until 5:00 today to submit comments by email. Would you order differently if you knew the calorie content of your food before you ordered it?
