Mar. 23--CHARLESTON, W.Va.--State worker Harlan White had just picked up a cheeseburger and apple pie at an East End Rally's for lunch.
Fast food is not his regular lunchtime routine -- he usually brings his own food. Still, when asked if seeing calorie counts on the menu would affect the way he orders, he said it might.
"It would probably deter me if I'd seen what was actually in this," said White, a network manager for the state Library Commission.
"If you're actually seeing it there, that might change your mind about what you're going to eat," White said. "When you see it, you might say, 'Hey, I probably should stay away from that.' So it might. It'd be a fifty-fifty."
State lawmakers are debating a restaurant calorie-posting program that advocates believe will help West Virginians make healthier choices.
State workers like White and other diners who were flowing from the Capitol toward the fast-food restaurants on Washington Street on a recent day thought the postings might have that effect.
"I think it would be a good idea," said former coal mine worker Carl Hitt. "There are a lot of people who just, I guess they don't pay attention to what they're eating and it's causing a lot of obesity."
Senate Bill 419 -- there's also a version in the House -- would require certain chain restaurants to post caloric information on their menu boards as a way to address rising obesity rates.
The Healthy Lifestyles Restaurant Calorie Posting Program would affect restaurants in West Virginia with more than 15 locations nationally doing business under the same trade name.
The bill is scheduled to be taken up Tuesday in the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee.
Delegate Don Perdue, D-Wayne, sponsored the House version and anticipates the House will wait for the Senate bill.
"I'm very hopeful that it will pass and that it will be able to do something that I think is important," Perdue said.
Perdue lives near Huntington, the nation's unhealthiest city, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We simply can't allow that to continue," Perdue said. "This effort may not have as profound results as we'd like to see, but it will have results."
About 37.7 percent of West Virginia adults report being overweight and another 30.3 percent are obese, according to the 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey.
"We have to do it for our children more than anything else," said the Senate bill's lead sponsor, Senate Health and Human Resources Chair Roman Prezioso, D-Marion.
"I've seen the rate of Type 2 diabetes rise. We have to help these children make a better decision. That's when the behavioral modification comes into play."
About 61 percent of state residents support the calorie-posting legislation, according to a recent poll by the West Virginians' Campaign for a Healthy Future.
"I think it would make a big difference," said Anne Crabtree, whose husband is recovering from heart surgery.
"He doesn't eat out anymore because we're not sure of the fat count and the sugar count in the items," said Crabtree, a systems programmer for the state Office of Technology. "It's depressing for him."
However, not all West Virginians believe the bill will make a difference.
"If you like the food, you're going to eat it anyway," said Nate Chaney, who works with the grounds crew at the state Capitol. "I would want them to pass a bill to say if the restaurant is clean or not."
Being able to see the calories as you order would be convenient, said Mack Parsons, a senior deputy auditor for the state Auditor's Office. But he questioned whether that convenience is worth the cost.
"There's more to it than what meets the eye sometimes," said Parsons, a self-described on-and-off Weight Watchers follower.
"I don't know what it would cost the restaurant to make those determinations. If it's going to increase the cost of the food, I'm not so sure it would be a good thing."
Some restaurant owners estimate new menu signs could cost from $3,000 to $9,000 per restaurant.
Matthew Herridge of Vienna co-owns 24 Burger King restaurants in West Virginia and Ohio. Herridge says his restaurants provide tray liners, posters and pamphlets with nutritional information.
"All that information is there," Herridge said. "Are you willing to, number one, pay more for your food and pay more taxes to West Virginia bureaucracy to regulate the intricacies of it?"
Herridge also was concerned that adding more numbers to the menu boards as prominently as the prices could be confusing,
"Is that 600 calories or is that $6?" Herridge said. "It's going to slow our speed of service."
Cost estimates for the menu changes are "over-inflated" Prezioso said.
"We think the cost will be considerably less than what we're being told," he said. "It's not that it hasn't been done before."
And while nutritional information already is available, how it is displayed can make a difference, he said.
"Once individuals begin to look and take that responsibility, it continues throughout their lives," he said.
Contact Michelle Saxton at 304-348-5149 or michelle.sax...@
dailymail.com.
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