new FDA chain-restaurant menu rules

image: cdn.newsone.com

Last February saw passing of the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010" including section 4205 with verbiage on "Menu Labeling Provisions".

Now chain restaurants must show calorie contents adjacent to food on their menus.  Some locales have already rolled this out.  i saw calorie counts on lots of menus when we were recently in NYC.

For these guidelines the FDA considers chains those:
(a) with 20 or more locations,
(b) doing business under the same name (regardless of the type of ownership of the locations, e.g., individual franchisees)
(c) offering for sale substantially the same menu items.

in addition, these restaurants will have to make available further standard nutrition information (calories from fat, protein, cholesterol, etc).

according to the Bill, "Americans now consume an estimated one-third of their total calories on foods prepared outside the home and spend almost half of their food dollars on such foods." 
and "Consumers are generally unaware of, or inaccurately estimate, the number of calories they consume from such foods." 
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "approximately 67% of adults, and 31.7% of children ages 2-19 are overweight or obese".

What do you think?  should food retail chains be allowed the freedom to market their food as they see fit?  can consumers be trusted to make informed and healthy choices?