Informed Choices

Today the Massachusetts Public Health Council approved rules that will make restaurants with more than 20 locations in the state post calorie counts at point of sale, whether on menu boards or on the menu--a move similar to New York City's, as an article by Stephen Smith on the front page of today's Boston Globe recounts.

I dipped into this in my piece on cupcakes, in which I heretically implied that muffins can have more calories than cupcakes, and started on a fair bit of calorie-labeling research I'll be continuing to explore and write about. Knowing what you're about to eat makes a big difference in what you order and how much of it you consume, as anyone who's walked into a sandwich shop in New York knows--let alone a Starbucks, where the information on cookies has put many people suddenly in a sharing mood.

Both the release and the articles quote my spouse, John Auerbach, the state health commissioner, who's been working with others for a fair bit of time himself. As he was inspired by the hard work of others, I hope other states and cities will be inspired too.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2009/05/informed-choices/17528/