Maybe you won’t want to eat that double bacon cheeseburger and large fries if the menu you order it from says its 1,600 calories. At least that’s wht the Food and Drug Administration is hoping with their proposal that menus be required to list calorie counts at chain restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, convenience stores and coffee chains.

America has quite the obesity problem, and as Mike Taylor of the FDA says, part of that is due to eating outside the home.

“Consumers generally when you ask them say they would prefer to have that information,” he tells the Associate Press.

The new law would apply to menus in restaurants and drive-through lanes, as well as vending machines if the info isn’t easily seen on the package. An estimated 280,000 establishments nationwide will be affected. Movie theaters and other places where the selling of food is not the primary business won’t have to comply with the menu rules.

The requirements were added into a health bill signed into legislation last year, with the support of the restaurant industry. Currently, there are a few states with such laws in place already.

FDA proposes more calorie count information [The Associated Press via Seattle PI]

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