New York Debating Decision to Require Calorie Content Posted on Fast Foods

Of course the restaurant association thinks this is a terrible idea.

I have even read the argument this violates a fast food entrepreneurs First Amendment rights. I doubt Ben Franklin and James Madison thought of hamburgers when they thought that amendment up.

New York bureaucrats, like many cities’ officials have decided since they prove continually that they don’t know how to run a city to instead prove to us they know how to run New Yorker’s lives. They are quick to point out this isn’t any ban on food or the beginning of some slippery slope that will do so.

Their thinking is that New Yorkers should be given the calorie information on their choices so that they can make more informed decisions on what they will gulp down quickly as they hustle around the Big Apple.

I imagine calorie count is important but does anyone really think most fast foods are solid forms of low calorie food? There are some chains which carry menus that brag about low calories of course. That is their shtick.

Most places however don’t care to scare the living hell out of consumers by telling them their favorite triple burger, with double cheese, mayo and special potato salad sauce has more calories than an Ethiopian eats in a year. They don’t want to have to show those incredulous numbers on the menu boards as they no doubt fear someone actually will decide that maybe the reason they have begun to lose any semblance of shape might be because of their eating at this establishment. They also fear that some among us might realize these great tasting foods should still be enjoyed but in moderation compared to our current levels of frequency. I also would guess that some of the numbers would cause a store to have to build new larger menu boards just to hold all the caloric content mathematics that the law would require.

There is more to the national weight problem than just our eating really good tasting things that we all know have homing devices that send them directly to our waste and buttocks for eternal storage.

The real problem we have in this country is that once we get settled into our car or truck, we refuse to leave the cozy confines as we go about our daily business. I believe it is this inactivity coupled with those high calorie munchies that will eventually doom us into looking like a nation of weebles.

The biggest problem and the root cause of America getting chubby is the drive-through. Take a look for yourself. The weight problems in America started going up in the late 1970’s just about the same time the drive-through started being installed at every business.

Take a look at a normal busy day for one of us. The cleaners; drive through. The bank; drive through. The pharmacy: drive through. Cup of coffee; drive through. Breakfast, lunch or dinner; the drive through. In fact the only business I can think of that doesn’t have a drive through is the gas station. Here though, we can use our debit or credit cards so we don’t have to move more than five feet from our car.

There are even funeral homes in California that have drive throughs now in place. Currently those drive throughs are for visitors for the deceased and are not used to drop off the body of a loved one for preparation. Not yet. Not until someone can figure out how to get the late Uncle Elmo squeezed into one of those pneumatic tubes that is.

If New York lawmakers want to slow down the rate of overweight New Yorkers they need to look at both sides of the equation. Eating too many calories is not good for us. Not expending enough calories in our daily lives is just as important. Perhaps they should require drive throughs to list how many calories a person has not burned by refusing to get out of their vehicle.