Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the FDA вЂњanticipated that Americans would adjust as necessary based on their age, sex, stage of life, activity level, etc.вЂќ ThatвЂ™s because a calorie is not one-size-fits-all, and caloric restriction isnвЂ™t the ultimate path to health or weight loss. In 1990, the FDA mandated nutrition labels on packaged foods, and set the 2,000-calorie diet as the baseline for meeting oneвЂ™s daily caloric needs. Once we figured out humans derive energy from food, the calorie became a unit of nutrition. A calorie is a unit of energy defined as the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of water by one degree. One is the calorie itself and its use as a metric for nutrition, along with the publicвЂ™s understanding of what calories even are. There are two issues at play when it comes to the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of posting menu calorie counts. In 2015, researchers at New York University reported that while diners changed their ordering patterns in the short term, over the years вЂњthe percentage of respondents noticing and using the information declined,вЂќ and that overall вЂњthere were no statistically significant changes over time in levels of calories or other nutrients purchased or in the frequency of visits to fast-food restaurants.вЂќ Also, even if calorie consumption has fallen, nearly 15 years after the implementation of the first laws, obesity rates across the country (the term which the CDC still uses to lump together diet-related illnesses) have continued to increase. ItвЂ™s true the average AmericanвЂ™s calorie consumption has overall gone down since 2003, though thereвЂ™s no clear evidence that shift has been directly linked to calorie counts on menus. Not everyone will use it, but many people will, and when they use it, it changes what they order, and that should reduce obesity and, with it, diabetes.вЂќДЇriedenвЂ™s вЂњshould,вЂќ however, did some heavy work. Frieden, then the cityвЂ™s health commissioner, in 2007. вЂњThe big picture is that New Yorkers donвЂ™t have access to calorie information,вЂќ said Dr. Legislators and scientists theorized that informed consumers would amend their orders to have fewer calories. In 2010, the Affordable Care Act ruled that chains with more than 20 locations must post calorie counts, though the FDA delayed implementation until 2018. A similar law went into effect in California in 2009. In 2008, New York City became the first locality to require chain restaurants to include calorie information on their menus, defined as any restaurant with 15 or more locations. In the U.S., the push to include calorie counts on menus started a little over a decade ago. Which is why itвЂ™s time for calorie counts to go. But as is often the case, people gather these illnesses under the umbrella of вЂњthe obesity epidemic,вЂќ conflating size with health and providing dangerous fodder for the diet-obsessed. Experts believed this would trickle down to fewer cases of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other diet-related illnesses.

Given that Americans eat one in five of our calories at restaurants, the logic was that maybe youвЂ™d choose a smaller soda, or a side salad instead of fries, if you were faced with raw numbers. For the rest of the day, there was a voice in my head doing the math, telling me I should вЂњmake upвЂќ for the transgression of ordering, telling me I was bad for eating something I wanted.ДЄdding calorie counts to menus began as a way to encourage (and shame) people into making вЂњhealthierвЂќ choices while eating out. But just because the decision was made doesnвЂ™t mean I felt settled. I ended up ordering the coconut shrimp, which was delicious. Short of ordering a plate of plain fries (590 calories) there was no way I could eat anything and stay within a вЂњhealthyвЂќ range of calorie consumption. I thought maybe I could order something else, but every entree seemed within the same range, whether it was a sandwich or a salad or a teriyaki chicken bowl. That was nearly a dayвЂ™s вЂњworthвЂќ of calories, and IвЂ™d already had breakfast and a margarita. I felt a guilty flutter in my stomach, one I have done my best to kindly ignore since I was a preteen, but which is there no matter what I do. But next to the price was another number - 1370, the amount of calories in the entree. I was there reporting for another story, and ready to order the coconut shrimp IвЂ™d been dreaming about since I got the assignment. This story mentions calorie counts, weight, and weight loss.

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