Blueberry Muffin: 507 calories.

Grande Mocha Frappuccino: 380 calories.

The Big Apple: 8 billion calories.

New Yorkers experienced an entirely new brand of sticker shock this July. The city enacted a law requiring all restaurants with over 15 locations nationwide to post calorie labels on their menus. The law barely scratches the surface of the New York culinary scene, but it has already made a strong impact. The listings must be conspicuously placed near the item’s name in the same size and font as the price. Many are finding this hard to swallow.

I’ll admit when I first stumbled upon this news, I had to laugh. Has it gotten to the point where we have to put Big Tobacco-worthy warning labels on our food? Well… apparently it has.

If obesity rates continue at the pace they have in the last three decades, virtually every American will be overweight or obese in thirty years. As extreme and unlikely as these statistics might seem, they still paint a grim future for the country. We all know the formula: Huge portion sizes and regular restaurant meals combined with increasingly inactive lifestyles are a recipe for disaster. However, does the so-called obesity “epidemic” justifiably warrant the regulation and legislation of free will?

Madison is the perfect place to consider this question. Home to a large, highly-ranked and successful university, we have an intelligent and well-informed student population. After a trip to the SERF or a stroll past morning joggers, most would think at least some of our students are concerned about their health. Madison is also home to one of the highest number of restaurants per capita in the U.S. Come 2 a.m., you’ll find those same spandex-clad gym-goers downing burritos the size of small mammals and macaroni and cheese pizza monstrosities. It’s no secret that after a few vodka tonics, we will eat anything, and the choices are abundant.

So would the label of 1,270 calories on your oh-so-cheesy Qdoba burrito curb your inebriated appetite? Maybe not.

Perhaps the next morning as you nurse your hangover holed up in a Starbucks, you’ll reconsider that 360-calorie muffin you usually pick up with a coffee if you had its calorie count staring you in the face as you approach the register. You want to eat repackaged cake for breakfast? Awesome. Regardless, the information is yours — full disclosure.

These laws are risky for the restaurant industry and quite possibly undermine the idea of going out to eat altogether — many people do so for the sole purpose of indulging. But restaurants are not required to provide healthy options for consumers. After all, what would Outback Steakhouse be without its Bloomin’ Onion?

Many people, however, are unknowingly indulging too much. If a healthy-sounding entree is going to contain 95 percent of people’s caloric intake for the day, they should know about it. The fact is, many restaurant choices have gotten out of control, with unhealthy ingredients added for the sake of expediency. Without completely bizarre, in-your-face measures like this one, is society really capable of taming the obesity monster? Some might say yes. The numbers say no.

According to The New York Times, 64.5 percent of American adults are overweight or obese, with trends pointing only to increased numbers of obesity in the future.  

We can go on the web and check out nutritional information before heading to our restaurant of choice and make a smart decision on what to order. We can even use common sense and stick with a small sandwich and veggies. But it doesn’t always happen that way. People will continue going to restaurants more and more often, and they may or may not believe their Santa Fe Grande South of the Border Cheesy Chicken is okay to eat because it has guacamole in it.  But something has to change, and for now, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be us.

I’m an advocate of free will. It’s not up to stuffy legislators in suits to decide how and what people should eat, which is why, for good or for bad, these laws — unpalatable as they may be — are simply fair disclosure laws that leave the choice to the consumer. The issue is the consumer would have that knowledge to make an informed decision.

So where to go from here? What could a new law like this really achieve? Los Angeles is currently considering a similar law, along with more than a dozen other states and cities. More are sure to follow. How likely it is to change the diets of students if it does indeed show up in Madison? This remains to be seen.

These laws are sure to cause many more a guffaw from critics such as myself, who believe the mere idea of regulating something as far removed from government as a grilled cheese is completely mind-boggling. But if it makes even the slightest dent in a serious and costly health issue, then what the heck — I knew those things tasted too good to be true.

Laura Brennan ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in communicative disorders.