City continues fight against obesity with easily-visible calorie statistics

The city of New York, under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's administration, is taking measures to prevent obesity statistics from continuing to grow. Requiring restaurant chains to provide calorie information to its patrons is a measure which allows customers to be more educated about their eating decisions. The reintroduction of this rule calls for restaurants that have more than 15 city-wide chains to openly list calorie counts.

According to a recent New York Times article, "NYC Reintroduces Calorie Rule," restaurants and fast-food chains like McDonald's and Starbucks already implemented this information on their websites or tray liners. Health officials claim in order for customers to have a more active role in choosing their food, the calorie count needs to be as prominent as the item itself. The restaurants taking part in this calorie rule make up nearly 10 percent of the 23,000 restaurants in the city.

As told to the New York Times, the city's Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden said, "Not everyone will use [the calorie count list], but many people will, and when they use it, it changes what they order, and that should reduce obesity and, with it, diabetes."

The public hearing regarding this proposal is scheduled for Nov. 27 and the Board of Health will vote in January. On March 31, 2008, required restaurants will partake in listing calorie counts.

According to NYC.gov's health site , approximately 127 million adults in the U.S. are overweight, leading to nearly 280,000 deaths. More than half of all New Yorkers are overweight or obese.

In 2005, the Health Department of NYC took measures to stop the growth of obesity by partnering with the American Heart Association to launch the Trans Fat Help Center. This center aids in a trans-fat switch over within many restaurants.

Though restaurants continue to lobby the calorie bill, 20 states have joined in an effort to decrease the obesity epidemic. According to the Times article, Chuck Hunt, a spokesman for the Restaurant Association said, "This is a case of government imposing itself upon the way businesses are conducted," he said. "This is not something to prevent a violation of law, and our opposition to this will continue for the same reasons we've stated previously."

Lackmann Culinary Serv-ices, the University's food provider, is also taking measures to prevent obesity from becoming prevalent. The One Pace Plaza cafeteria upgrade allows Lackmann to present more selections, including a full salad bar with twice as many salad and vegetable options as last year. According to the Lackmann website, Lighter By Choice entrees provide food prepared from low-fat cooking methods. All Lackmann chefs are trained in low-fat and nutritional cooking methods.

According to Rob Rolston, the regional corporate chef for Lackmann Culinary Services, "We as a company are not allowed to use trans-fat." He said at this point Lackmann's items are 90 percent trans-fat free, but that in the near future the company should be at 100 percent. "Even the oil we use is trans-fat free. All the deep-fried food uses zero-fat oil."

He also noted that there is a plethora of vegetarian and vegan options available to the student body, citing the salad bar, vegan pre-packaged foods and the vegetarian sushi rolls among many other items.

Rolston said Lackmann is currently working on a system to provide calorie counts to students for all of their cooked on-site food. He said much of packaged items already have lists and the calorie count will be available in the upcoming future.

Though many people blame University food for weight gain, junior Jeremy Klachkin believes students are responsible for their gain. "The school's cafeteria food is great. Whenever I get food from there, I'm always pleased," Klachkin said, noting despite the use of fatty foods, students ultimately decide what they ingest. "It's the student's fault if they eat hamburgers or Chinese food all the time. You can eat salad all semester."