The Health Care Bill puts calorie counts on U.S. menus: Will that change your order?

i went to Friendly's and looked at the menu. the meal i wanted was 2900 calories! i couldnt believe it and i ordered something else. it is a good tool but the fact is, most of the things on the menu had too many calories. what i ended up choosing was about 1600. my kids wanted to go again and i decided against it because in my quest to lose weight, i didnt want another day of that many calories in one meal. it made me realize how im staying fat - im eating a day and a halfs worth of food in one meal! im no food nazi but its good to have a choice.

I whole heartedly agree with this, for those of us that are trying to watch what we eat, it is sometimes hard to get the nutritional information. I know of at least 2 chain restaurants where you can not access the information.

You shouldn't half to "Deal With It".
Would you take out a loan without knowing the rate?!
Would you purchase a large ticket item without knowing the purchase price?!
Not everyone chooses to go out to eat.
Imagine all those educated individuals who are required as part of their job to travel, have no access to a refrigerator, exercise equipment or even a safe area to walk (thankfully, some hotels are wising up to this!), and think they are choosing their meals wisely.
Knowledge is good.

Betcha people will eat more calories... because they will choose more lower calorie items and not add them up to make up for their higher calorie item.

And Marion is right... a lot of fast food restaurants have their nutrition facts posted in the store and have had for many years now... and that hasn't curbed anyone's calorie intake in Burger King, McDonalds or Wendy's... And most restaurants have their nutrition facts online... You can get them for just about any restaurant so if you REALLY cared you can do your homework BEFORE you go out to eat.

For those of you saying "do your homework" and " places have their nutritional information posted online" ... I am here to tell you that yes, you can find estimations for places like Texas Roadhouse and the Outback Steakhouse, but nothing published by these places on THEIR websites. And WHY should I stay at home to eat, it is my RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT I AM PUTTING INTO MY BODY, regardless of if I am preparing it or somebody else is preparing it. Also, dont you think that a parent has a right to know(at a glance)that the double cheeseburger happy meal they just ordered for their child contains about 660 calories and that is without the drink.

But will the restaraunts make the healthier dishes more expensive? Like I like to eat fish but that is usually so much more expensive than the beef, so I get the beef. I hope not...

Look, people KNOW what foods are bad for them or are high in calories. It's not a secret that a Cheesecake Factory-sized portion of food or a gooey, delicious sticky bun aren't the healthiest choices. We're further infantilizing our citizens by acting as though this isn't obvious. The problem isn't lack of awareness, in my opinion. It's lack of will or care to avoid bad things and eat well and exercise. I'm not upset people choose to make less than admirable decisions--that's everyone's right to do as they wish. What I don't like is being treated like an ill-informed child by my goverment.

I recently read one of those "eat this not that" articles and found out that two of my favorite dishes from Applebees have around 2000 calories in them. 2000! Knowing that will definately change the way I eat at Applebees for the better--I might still order those dishes, but now I know to eat only one fourth (and they are large enough that it's reasonable) and take the rest home for three more meals.

As for restaurants already doing this--not where I live. I can find the information on the internet sometimes, but when I'm at the restaurant or drive-through, the only nutritional information I ever see is for the four or five 'healthy' items they're promoting, and that is usually not much information; the rest of the food is still a mystery.

Most resturants already have posted somewhere their calorie count. And if they don't have it posted, ever since stupid people started sueing for being fat, if you have really wanted to know then you could have asked and they would have given you a way to get the calorie count. The goverment does not need to force places to do this, people just need to wake up and realize that eating out is more costly and higher in calories and fat than when you eat at home. Either deal with it or don't go out to eat.

Why don't they just cut to the chase and close all restaurants? Face it, eating out is bad for everyone, its no wonder everyone is dropping dead form heart attacks and obesity! And while they're at it, why don't they close all food companies and manfacturing? Prepackaged foods are chockful of calories and toxins, if the obesity won't kill you, the sodium chloride will!

Or Anna, they will revert right back to their obsessive calorie and fat content counting that is beyond healthy... But again, it's not about having a problem with having nutrition facts posted... because most restuarants have had them posted at least online for years (it's how I stopped eating Sbarro's pizza in college)... But to suggest it's some miracle cure all and that everyone (which I'm betting most people won't even look at it) will start eating more healthy when eating out is ridiculous...

Finally!!! This is what Americans have needed for a long time. The truth is that most restaurants want to make food taste great so that you'll keep coming back, and they do not care about your health or waistline. One example is the Cheesecake Factory, a restaurant that refushes to share nutritional or calorie information anywhere, including their web site. This should not be a surprise considering the portions are huge and everything is delicious. And often something that is presented as healthy is really 500-1000 calories in disguise. I'm so happy that I will be able to make a more informed choice instead of being tricked by these large corporations.

I think it's amazing how many calories some of the items in restaurants have. I think some people will stop eating out as much OR change their ordering habits once they figure out how many calories they are consuming in one sitting.

I am thrilled! Although I know calorie counts at most restaraunts are much higher than homemade food. I was at a chain restaraunt the other day and read that thier light options were guaranteed to be under 700 calories! How is that light? It is half the calories I should eat in a day! The problem is this info was printed very small (it was only a slow waiter that had me reading the small print) and I could not even determine which "light" item would be my lightest choice. Our portion sizes have increased so much over the past 30 years, perhaps seeing how many calories we are putting in our bodies will hlp us start the trend toward smaller portions.

It won't change the way I eat because I already know what the healthiest option is for me to eat at fast food restaurants. I looked it up online a while ago and avoid the restaurants that don't have a healthier option. I'm just excited that now I won't have to look online before going. I think this is a great thing for our country!

Yeah, I don't really eat out either, maybe lunch once a week. Everything else I prepare at home. So, the calorie counts, while good to know, aren't really going to affect my choices, unless it's so huge it's obscene.

I'm all for the calorie content in ALL restaurants. There are plenty of people out there who simply want to know. But on the otherhand, if you are eating at fast food places or even a Outback, Chili's, Fridays or Cheesecake Factory it's kind of a duh factor because most everything on those menus are high calorie items and it's a given to assume you are consuming 500+ calories.

It will be terrible for people who have or are trying to recover from an eating disorder. We already feel guilty enough for eating out at a restaurant. but now you are just going to make it more difficult to order or suppress the urge to purge. Thanks.

I'm already on a strict diet, the new health bill will present some uncharted issues ...better be super ready in the present than at the mercy of the unknown...

Also, for those people saying if you want to watch what you eat, eat salad... go onto RED ROBIN's web site and look a the outraages calorie amounts in some of their salads and this is only one example.