New York City has launched a new campaign to encourage New Yorkers to use the calorie counts for food items on menus and menu boards that the city's chain restaurants are now required to post.  This summer, the federal court upheld the rule that requires chain restaurants in New York City to post calorie information, and the New York City Health Department wants to be sure that people take advantage of it. To do this, they are posting five ads in New York City subway cars until the end of the year. The ads (click here to view them) are designed to show how quickly food calories add up and how deceptive appearances can be. Because many people are unaware that the typical adult needs 2000 calories a day (or less) to maintain a steady weight, the ads provide this information along with a photo and calorie count for some common on-the-go foods. Thus, people who haven't received a specific daily calorie needs amount from http://www.standupandeat.org/ can still make sense of the calorie amounts on menus and menu boards. After all, what good is knowing that a tuna sub sandwich has 530 calories if someone doesn't know how many calories he/she should be eating over the course of the day?  

New York City Health Department surveys have shown that when restaurant patrons use calorie information in deciding what to order, they average nearly 100 fewer calories in each meal purchased. The Health Department estimates that posting calories on menu boards and menus will reduce the number of people who suffer from obesity by 150,000 over the next five years, preventing more than 30,000 cases of diabetes!

While it's too bad that other cities haven't caught on to the calorie and health connection yet, we at Stand Up & Eat are working hard to help all Americans determine their calorie needs (click here for the Stand Up & Eat Daily Calorie Needs Calculator) and discover resources for finding calorie information (click here for a searchable web site). Please help us by forwarding this blog post on to your family members and friends!