Do Calories on the Menu Make a Difference?

May 23, 2008— -- New York is a city that is obsessed with numbers. How much money did you make last year? How many championships have you won? How big is your skyscraper? How much did you pay for your two-bedroom apartment?

But now the 8 million residents of the Big Apple are being forced to chew on some numbers that are a whole lot harder to swallow — the calories in their food. Since January of this year, chain restaurants with 15 or more establishments are required by law to post the calories of everything that they serve – right on the menu.

Now you can see just how many calories are in your breakfasts (a McDonald's McMuffin packs 450 calories), lunches (a Taco Bell burrito, 2,500 calories) and dinners (Chili's chicken Caesar salad: 1,010 calories).

The enforcers are the folks at New York City Department of Health. They, too, are focused on the numbers and are hoping to reverse some disturbing trends.

"In some of our neighborhoods two out of three residents are overweight or obese and that has doubled over the last decade," said Dr. Lynn Silver with the NYC Department of Health. "This is a problem that is getting worse.

"We hope that this law will have a significant impact on both the frequency of obesity and diabetes in our city. We estimate that in our city there will be 150,000 fewer people obese because of this."

Not everyone agrees, including, perhaps not surprisingly, the people at the National Restaurant Association.

"I would like to see the scientific info on that claim," said Chuck Hunt from the Association. "We are very in favor of doing things. The restaurant industry for the last 20 years has increasingly offered our customers a way in which to reduce calories and other nutritional items. But it is more than just calories that count; it has to be exercise. The real place is in the home to worry about obesity.

Hunt says the calorie mandate is an example of the government micromanaging small businesses.

Will this new law make a difference in the waistline of New Yorkers? "Nightline" enlisted the help of a man who not only loves food but who makes his living writing about it.