Give me the Facts!

The fight against America's obesity epidemic and for full-food-fact disclosure has been waging for years. And while no side has been named the clear champ, one middle-party is taking most of the punches--the American public.

Americans today eat out twice as much as they did in 1970--so shouldn't they have the right to know what they're eating? I sure thought so, but apparently it's not that simple.

In 2003, a California bill (SB 679) was introduced to the state Senate that would require fast-food chains or any other restaurant with 10 or more locations to disclose their nutrition data per request and post signs informing customers that the information is available. It has recently become a slow-growing trend, but this early effort was DOA.

Later that year, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) was joined by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and the Center for Science and the Public Interest (CSPI) to introduce legislation to help fight obesity. The Menu Education and Labeling (MEAL) bill would require fast-food joints to list their calorie counts on menu boards, and table-service restaurants on printed menus. It seemed to have some muscle behind it, but didn't have quite enough strength to push its way past introduction.

In 2005, McDonald's announced a new plan to add nutritional facts directly to the packaging, in addition to the information available at their website and brochures in stores. So when you're about to sink your teeth into a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, you know you're putting down 730 calories. It seemed like a win, but later proved to be self-defeating (knowing the startling nutritional facts after you buy the cheeseburger does not keep you from eating the cheeseburger)

All these efforts and others like them seemed like great attempts at one small step for mankind's health (and waistline), but without a law, many restaurants refuted and refused to comply. It was too much work, would take too much time, there was no way to be completely accurate. Maybe. But could restaurants' resistance stem from somewhere else? Maybe, just maybe, could companies like Cheesecake Factory not want consumers to know that hidden in one slice of Chocolate PB Cookie Dough Cheesecake is 1150 calories and 74 grams of fat? I'll place my bets on the latter.

The importance of these laws are indisputable. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the state of the nation's weight in 2006 is in dire need of intervention. Only four states had a percentage of obesity less than 20%. Twenty-two states had a predominance equal or greater than 25%, including Mississippi and West Virginia with obesity equal to or greater than 30%!

Luckily, the fight isn't over yet. Today, at least 14 states and three cities (NYC and Philly have made news recently) have passed or are working on laws to give Americans more of what they want: the facts!