Post your calories, New York City!

Yummy pastry? 500 calories.

Would you want to know the damage you're about to do when you pick up breakfast from your favorite shop? New York City is enforcing a law requiring some restaurants to post calorie information on their menus.

Personally, I never thought this day would come. The higher ups at Starbucks and Dunken Donuts had to be real miffed about this whole thing. Really, it's about time. Obesity is a huge (no pun intended) issue in our society, and what are we doing about it?

Restaurants are slapping the term 'fat free' and 'low carb' around like it's a high five. Of course it's a high five, to themselves! We suck up gallons of diet pop, and trust these so loosely used phrases. Companies are not invested in selling Americans healthy products, they are invested in selling. Period. From companies that sell frozen dinners, to cigarettes, the goal is simple- lure the consumer to purchase, and purchase regularly.

When obesity numbers first rose, restaurants started to "show their dedication to the well being of their consumers" by posting nutritional information deep within their web sites. Sorry, but when you missed breakfast and need to pick up a bagel to go, are you really going to swing by the library to look up the nutritional info first? Inconvenient.

I even noticed Starbucks started to carry pamphlets with nutrition info. I admire their attempt to fool consumers, because the higher ups know as well as we do that no one is going to pause from their morning rush to scrutinize papers tucked in the corner of the store. Although again inconvenient for the consumer, think about how convenient it is for the companies to boast they care.

Thankfully the government is taking things into their own hands and requiring calorie posting, even in the same size and font at the food label itself. Thank you to The Weighting Game for first bringing this to my attention; I had to bring the topic to ASA. Here's what folk in the Big Apple think, what about you?