New rules over calorie counts on menus raise questions

Earlier this month the New York Health Department issued new rules that bind every chain with at least 15 outlets nationwide to display calorie counts on menu boards, menus or food tags.

Photo: New rules over calorie counts on menus raise questions

In addition to the New York State Restaurant Association’s court fight against those rules there aroused a number of vital question.

One of the main arguments for calorie counts is providing customers with essential information so that every obese person can select lower-calorie meals. But the question lies in the amount of calories an average person should eat on an average day.

According to estimations, an average-size person (150 pounds) should consume about 1,700 - 2,050 calories for “weight maintenance.” This means that the person would neither gain nor lose weight.

But specialists claim that every person has different caloric needs, and the amount of calories alone doesn’t measure nutritional content.