When We Know Better...Will We Do Better?

A bill has been introduced that would require fast-food and other chain restaurants to post information about their food on the menu boards and food display tags.  They would also have to post information about calories, carbohydrates, fats and salts.  

The hope is when faced with the actual nutritional information in the food they are about to get, informed consumers will be more likely to make healthier, more responsible choices.

"Consumers play an impossible guessing game trying to make healthier choices in restaurants," said Margo Wootan, nutrition policy director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "Who would guess that a large chocolate shake at McDonald's has more calories than two Big Macs or that a multigrain bagel at Dunkin' Donuts has 140 more calories than a jelly doughnut?" 

As more and more people are eating out on a regular basis, this kind of information is absolutely critical in my opinion.  Restaurants and fast-food chains spend lots of big money marketing their food to people who really have no idea what is healthy and what is not.  They put healthy sounding words in the name of the product, maybe even show a picture of some thin, gorgeous people enjoying it or whatever it takes to make someone buy it, but in reality it is usually HORRIBLE for you.  I am sure there will be flaws in whatever eventually gets rolled out but I do think it's a great start.  Also, as usual, at the end of the day it still comes down to personal choices...but it's a lot easier to make choices when we have more information.