file under: totally nutso

Am I the only person who thinks that this is insane?

Story:

By my cooking school, there's a little mini-mart (a chain) that has fabulous fresh sandwiches, salads and juices for your average parisian (me). Pretty much every day that I go to cooking class, I stop by to pick up lunch.  (Note:  most European food products are labelled with a simple list of ingredients, on the back.  Infrequently, there's a calorie count.)

So I was shocked and kind of horrified when, a few weeks ago, I walked into my beloved mini-mart and saw that all the sandwiches had enormous stickers on the front with calorie counts!  I had never seen anything like that anywhere in France before.  They ruined my sandwiches!  It's like, now, instead of picking a sandwich, I have to pick a calorie count.  Involuntarily,  I think about bikini season.   Fun!  

Now, I avoid the sandwich aisle completely and eat the salads or pasta plates instead.

Back to this crazy New York law:  Couldn't they just requre pamplets or books to be available in-store, like Jamba Juice has been doing for, well, ever?  

And do we really need a calorie count to know that a muffin bigger than two fists is just not a nutritional snack, ever?

Honestly, calorie counting is not very fun. Obsession over calories is, in my opinion, the best way to find yourself eating more of them.  A simple calorie count, without accompanying nutritional information, tells us very little about the nutritional impact of what we are eating.   And really, all of us know a healthful, balanced meal when we see it.  

But apparently New Yorkers are perfectly happy to have calorie counts staring them down three times a day . . . 

(for now, says I . . .)