Calorie & Food Contents Soon to Hit Theaters, Airports and More

Counting calories is about to get a whole lot easier with new legislation, and it will certainly make life easier for people with diabetes– especially those with type 2 diabetes. Section 4205 of the Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010 and is scheduled to go into effect in March of 2011. The law will require any establishment that sells food and is considered a chain store (20 or more locations) to disclose nutritional information. This law will encompass theaters, airlines, coffee shops, delis, bakeries, ice cream shops and even vending machines.  Restaurants in a chain store, including drive through restaurants will be required to post calorie contents on menu boards, in menus and on drive-through menu boards. Other nutritional information such as fats, proteins, fiber and carbohydrates must be made available in writing for those who request it.

This new legislation is a great step forward in combating America’s growing obesity problem, and making life eating out a whole lot easier for people with diabetes. As anyone with this disease knows, eating out or even enjoying a simple movie theater snack can be somewhat daunting because it’s more or less a guessing game as to the calorie content and nutritional value of foods. While there are tools available to help you such as KeyVive’s Food Database or the American Diabetes Association’s MyFoodAdvisor™, these can’t give you exact nutritional facts for the exact place or amount you are eating.

Knowing the calorie content and carbohydrate content in foods will benefit people with type 1 diabetes because they will have a more accurate idea of how much insulin they need with a meal, while people with type 2 diabetes often control their diabetes without medicine and instead rely on a super strict diet and exercise, so knowing calorie content will be very beneficial.

In addition to helping people with diabetes control their disease, this new legislation may also help prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes. Being overweight is a risk factor and while many people have every intention of eating a healthy diet and losing weight it is very hard to do when eating out. Hopefully with calorie content and other nutritional information readily available Americans will start making healthier choices, even when heading out. The results will be a healthier America.

By Raechel Conover

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