Sinfest is Copyright 2008 by Tatsuya Ishida/Museworks

Moments before I sat down to start writing this post President Barack Obama signed the America’s Affordable Health Care Choices Act into law. Like most of you, I have not actually read the entirety of the bill. Truth be told, up until this morning I had not read any of it myself. Whether you are a supporter of the bill or not, though, you can’t deny that if it actually makes it over the administrative and legal hurdles that will undoubtedly be thrown in front of it in the next few months there are going to be some radical changes the landscape of American health care. While I’m sure that most Americans are familiar with the major provisions that are set forth in the bill (no denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, children able to stay on their parents health insurance until the age of 26, etc…), like any piece of legislation that makes it through the House of Representatives there are a great number of changes that aren’t necessarily getting as much press.

One such change could have a direct impact on people who are trying to lose weight. Buried deep within the bowels of H.R. 3200 is Section 2562 – “NUTRITION LABELING OF STANDARD MENU ITEMS AT CHAIN RESTAURANTS AND OF ARTICLES OF FOOD SOLD FROM VENDING MACHINES.” In short, this section requires restaurants with more than 20 locations to display calorie information on their menus so that consumers can make informed choices about what they are eating. It also requires the same kind of information to be available on vending machines. In the case of combo meals, the nutritional information for the entire combination has to be displayed. On top of all that, the restaurants must display what the average daily recommended calorie intake is for most individuals.

In other words, if you should be eating 1800 calories a day and the meal you’re about to consume is 3000, you’re going to know it.

While this is likely to evoke charges of this bill creating the “Health Police,” I stand by my earlier assertions that these kind of laws are good things.  By giving consumers easy access to this kind of information restaurants will help them make more informed choices, and people won’t be able to fall back on the excuse of not realizing how unhealthy certain choices are. Items that may seem healthy but are still loaded down with calories and fat will be revealed for what they truly are, and if consumers start purchasing the items that really ARE lower in calories restaurants will offer more of them to meet consumer demand. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a win/win situation.