Paul cooking in restaurant

MICHAEL ROWLAND, NORTH AMERICA CORRESPONDENT: Calories are the last thing on Paul Denamiel's mind when he's in the kitchen of his New York City restaurant. The French chef has been whipping up rich buttery fare for more than a decade and his customers are well aware the dishes aren’t exactly diet friendly.

PAUL DENAMIEL, FRENCH RESTAURATEUR: To an establishment such as this people

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Paul

are coming to splurge. And it's moderation, they're doing this, they're not doing this every day. They're coming here and they’re not concerned about the caloric value and what they're eating and things like that.

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Streets of NY. Fat people

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MICHAEL ROWLAND: But moderation at meal time is something a lot of other New Yorkers aren't exercising. The Big Apple is fast becoming the big belly. Obesity rates in New York City are skyrocketing; 20 per cent of New Yorkers are now classified as obese, and health authorities are getting worried.

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CATHY NONAS, NYC HEALTH DEPT: The problem in New York City is no different than it

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Cathy

is in the rest of the world, which is that obesity is not only still increasing, but it's associated with many other risk factors, like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. So if you do something to reduce obesity, you also reduce the other diseases and that's what were trying to do.

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Bellies on street/Fast food outlets

MICHAEL ROWLAND: The city is targeting the spread of obesity by targeting the places where a disproportionate amount of calories are consumed each day. The New York Health Department has ordered most fast food outlets to post the calorie count of each hamburger and pizza on the menu.

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Cathy

CATHY NONAS: What we want consumers to know is what, how many calories each of those menu items has so the consumer can make their own decision. So we're not at all restricting anybody. The only thing we're doing is saying if you're going to put the menu and the price up there, you also have to put the calories, so at the point of purchase consumer will be able to figure out what the best deal is for them.

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Fast food prep/ menus

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Fast food restaurants serve about a third of all meals in New York City on any given day. Some chains already let customers know the numbers behind the various issue dishes on often but in many other places people are blissfully unaware of how many calories they're pushing down in a single meal.

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Marion

MARION NESTLE, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: You have a 2,000 calorie pizza. That's all you have to eat to take in your daily calories. You put in a drink and a salad and a couple of other things on top of that and you're way over. Not by 50 or 100 calories, you've over your daily caloric intake by thousands of calories. That's why people are gaining weight.

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Marion in office

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Marion Nestle is one of America's most outspoken nutritionists. She believes the new law will make a difference to New York waistlines.

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Marion

MARION NESTLE: Well, there are some preliminary studies, a few, very few, that show that when consumers are informed about the number of calories in some of the fast food items they will pick the smaller ones. As I said, I think people will be absolutely shocked when they see how many calories are in some of these items.

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Vox Pops on street

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Maybe not everybody.

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GIRL: The day I'm going to McDonald's I'm not going to really care about calories.

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MICHAEL ROWLAND: So it wouldn't make any difference to what you order?

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GIRL: No.

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YOUNG WOMAN: I actually think it's a really good idea. I mean it gives people a little more information about whether or not they're making the right decision about what they want to eat.

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Woman with big bum walking along street

MICHAEL ROWLAND: The fast food chains and their supporters insist the calorie counts will not produce a thinner New York, and they say it’s another case of the government overstepping the mark.

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Justin

JUSTIN WILSON, CENTER FOR CONSUMER FREEDOM; What I question is the fact there's not a single shred of evidence to suggest that any of these policies are going to work. And it's absolutely irresponsible policy making to adopt such a draconian regulation, frankly, a regulation that has costs on consumers, costs on restaurants, frankly costs on consumer freedom, as a more fundamental concept. The idea that you should just be able to enjoy your meals.

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Marian

MARION NESTLE: Oh, that's hilarious. I just find it very funny because of course the state has a role. The state has a role in every single aspect of the food business, from production to consumption, and this is simply another part of that role. It isn't doing something new or breaking new ground. It is just tweaking an existing system.

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Man eating fast food/ Fat people on street

MICHAEL ROWLAND: The crackdown on New Yorkers eating habits is one of several government measures that have triggered debate about personal freedom.

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Michael in kitchen

Last year, New York banned trans fats from the city’s kitchens. New York,

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Diners/ Smokers/ People on street

Washington and several other cities have banned smoking in all restaurants and bars. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg insists governments have an obligation to tell people how to lead better and healthier lives. Critics say it all smacks of a fast approaching a nanny state.

JUSTIN WILSON: I think it's really

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Justin

insidious the way they're approaching these policies, because it's kind of like the old adage about how you boil the frog. You put him in the cold water and you just slowly turn up the heat. Americans are losing liberties one at a time, but they don't recognise that each one of these little liberties is one more liberty that's lost and that you will never be able to get back.

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Tracking shot on NY street

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Nonetheless, those behind the calorie crackdown hope it will extend well beyond New York and well beyond America.

CATHY NONAS: There are proposals

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Cathy

like this all across the country and I actually expect that there'll be proposals in Australia as well soon. I think this has caught on, I think it's an idea that's helpful to residents in any area.

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Man with big belly

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Just how much people want to be helped remains an open question.

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Credits: 

Reporter: Michael Rowland

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