If every person living in New York City chose a McDonald’s cheeseburger instead of a Big Mac for lunch today, they would save over 1.9 billion calories — IN ONE DAY! That’s equal to about 274 tons of body fat. No wonder the NYC public health department has legislated the listing of calorie counts on certain restaurant menus.  And just last week the legislation was upheld after the New York State Restaurant Association sued to stop it.  Read a press release.
 
While this is a great step, we argue that this is only part of the solution. The other part is that people need to know what their daily calorie limit is so that they can know how a 1,420 calorie lunch fits – or not – into their total calorie allotment for the day. Let’s look at this more closely:

A man walks into a Burger King in Chicago. He orders the combo meal with the Whopper, large fries and a large soft drink. Grand total: 1,550 calories. He doesn’t even have a clue that he just ate 74% of his total daily calories in one meal.

A second man walks into a Burger King New York City. This restaurant lists the calories of each food item on the menu board. He sees that the Junior Whopper, medium fries, and a medium soft drink all have fewer calories than the big combo meal. Grand total: 970 calories. Better than the guy in Chicago but he still ate nearly 50% of his daily calorie total at lunch.

A third man walks into the same Burger King in NYC. He has learned from the Stand Up & Eat Calorie Calculator that he needs about 2,000 calories per day to stay in calorie balance. He decides that he wants to keep his calories about 1/3 of his daily calorie total (about 660 calories) so he orders the grilled chicken salad and uses ½ of the ranch dressing packet. That adds up to only 335 calories so he orders a diet coke and a small fries for a grand total of 565 calories. He has about 100 calories leftover to add to another meal or snack.

Here’s our argument. Providing calorie information on menus is a good idea. At least people can see and compare the low to high calorie options. But a recent report from the International Food Information Council stated that only 11% of American adults know how many calories they need in a day. So we need to make people aware of just how many (or for most of us, how few) calories we need each day.  

Let’s hope NYC – and other places – are successful in getting calorie labeling in restaurants. In the meantime, calculate how many daily calories you need. Send the calculator to people whom you think need to know their calorie limits.  

Would it make a difference to YOU if restaurants listed calorie information on the menus? Add your comments below.