Would you like to view the calorie count on a menu before you order?  Or would you rather not, and just continue to ignorantly indulge yourself and your kids?  This new idea is popping up around the country, New York and Washington for starters, with experts battling out the necessity and legality of the issue. Mandated by a new law, chain restaurants with more than ten national locations are required to menu label. (A response from Wendy's.) In Kings County, Washington, over 65% of the residents favor menu labeling.  They'll count calories, sodium, fat, and carbohydrates--all will be listed.

A new trend? Probably so.  And with good reason.  The costs of obesity weigh heavily upon our country. Eric Finkelstein, PhD, MHA, a nationally recognized economics and obesity researcher at RTI International states that over 62 million adults in the United States are obese.  12.5 million kids are too.  Dr. Finkelstein believes the our current obesity crisis is also an economic one. "Thanks to declining food costs and the ever-increasing usage of technology, we're eating more calories and burning off fewer. As a result, we are gaining weight lots of it--a consequence that any economist worth his weight would predict."  Dr. Finkelstein goes on to write that obesity cannot be significantly reduced with media campaigns about public health. Rather, the problem needs to be addressed economically, using incentives.

For children, this issue is non-existent.  As well, for the parent who looks the other way.  The Fattening of America: How the Economy Makes Us Fat, If It Matters, and What to Do About It, a newly published book by Finkelstein, underscores the price kids are paying for scarfing down extra calories of cheap food. 17% of our children are overweight. ("Overweight is the government's polite term for obese kids, and at-risk is their terminology for overweight kids.")  In the last 30 years the number of overweight kids has tripled, with higher rates for African-American and Hispanic children.  The outlook is bleak; weight gained in youth is difficult to lose.  They will face discrimination, loneliness, self-esteem issues, perhaps even depression, even from their parents.  Type 2 diabetes, usually an adult disease, is becoming more commonplace in kids, even for those ages 4 to 6.  It is estimated by the American Diabetes Association that approximately 45% of new pediatric diabetes cases are type 2. Childhood obesity also causes girls to begin puberty earlier than normal, which is associated with psychiatric disorders, earlier sexual activity and alcohol usage.

Children are fed what we give them, whether it's Krispy Kremes, Big Macs, or Frosties.  Parents, desperate to make their kids happy and full, happily reward both good and poor behavior with caloric indulgences.  Eating on the run is a part of the dual-income world today.  Kids eat meals inside their vehicles while being shuttled from home to school to aftercare.  Parents often feel guilty, but have difficulty finding the time to plan and prepare meals that everyone will eat. 

And the kids are getting fat.  Eric Finkelstein has shown that the price of high calorie foods, such as fats, oils, sugars, sweets, and carbonated beverages has risen at a much slower rate than that of relatively healthy products like fruits, vegetables, fish, and dairy products.  Because unhealthy products are significantly cheaper than healthier foods, people eat more of it, raising the daily calorie intake. 

"We're raising a generation of children who have the frightening honor of belonging to the first group in history that may have a lower life expectancy than their parents." Finkelstein adds, "In fact the CDC has predicted that if current trends continue, as many as 30-40 percent of today's children will get diabetes in their lifetimes."  Childhood obesity interventions include promoting and reducing the cost of healthy foods, removing vending machines, require more physical education, and report to parents about their child's weight within schools.  Marketing of less healthy food ads or complete prohibition of ads of unhealthy foods during kids' TV programs should also be considered.

Should The Big Mac Be Taxed?