Academic

The new Los Angeles requirement (?) of providing caloric information on fast food menus

By Tung Yin

Apparently, Los Angeles has imposed a new requirement on fast food restaurants to post the caloric information of their offerings.  When I got off the plane at LAX yesterday, the nearest food place was a Burger King.  This one didn't have what I normally get at BK, so I looked at other options.

And I was stunned at seeing how many calories come with a Whopper, fries, and drink.

I decided not to get anything.  Later, after checking in to my hotel, I walked around downtown L.A. a little bit and ended up at McDonald's.  Same thing, calorie content posted on the overhead menu.  And not in small print, either.

I ordered the Filet o'Fish (380 calories) and a drink but skipped on the fries, which apparently add something like 500 calories to the total.  (I later added to the calorie total with a bag of chips, but still much less than the fries would have added.)

I have to admit, the posting of the calorie count had a not insignificant deterrent effect on me!  I wonder how long before Portland moves in this direction . . . .

(Curiously, this requirement seems to apply only to fast food places, as the dinner restaurant did not have any such information in its printed menu.)

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on January 13, 2011 (boomark / email).