Chicago’s recent flurry of anti-consumer-choice regulations — including a ban on the French delicacy foie gras — has inspired at least one overzealous Illinois state legislator. Just last month, Rep. Mary Flowers introduced the Menu Education and Labeling Act, which would require restaurants and grocery stores to post signs warning customers that — gasp! — some of the foods they sell are high in calories, fat, and/or salt.As the bill steadily moves through committee, Illinois opinion-makers disinclined to follow the Windy City’s de-evolution into a tofu and lentils paradise are pushing back. Notably, nearby Rockford’s Register Star editorialized today about the bill’s problems, not least of which is that it doesn’t provide a logical stopping point to lawmakers’ crusade to "help" us shed pounds:
Unless you leave with a doggie bag, you could leave with nearly a full day’s worth of calories in one meal. Illinois might as well pass a mandate to pipe into every restaurant at regular intervals: "Push away from the table, ma’m."Being sociable at restaurants encourages people to overeat, too. People can be too busy visiting with each other to pay attention to what they are eating. Should talking during eating be against the law? Eyes on the plates, people! …We will begin to lick the problem when all who struggle with weight repeat, as often as necessary: This is not somebody else’s fault. This is my own.
