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The average American is obese and some are doing something about a condition that will lead them to an early death.

It would be nice if restaurants helped by listing the value of the ingredients of their offerings so that customers can make informed choices just as they can do in a food market. However, I don't believe that it is necessary or desirable to mandate that restaurants provide this information. It is, after all, a customer's responsibility.

For a start an obese person should already know enough not to eat the whole immense helping that restaurants typically serve in this country. It is good practice to make a practice of leaving something uneaten to show that too much was offered.

Secondly, with a little reading a person should know that certain foods are bad for one in particular fats and, therefore, salad dressings, olives, fried foods, and beef. You don't need a restaurant's numbers to avoid them. If you cannot eat a salad with only the usual seasonings salt and pepper then ask for the dressing on the side' and leave most of it.

Third, most cheeses is full of fat. You don't need a restaurant number to tell you that. Moreover, the cheeses delis or diners use is generally a processed American cheese rather than being real. Its taste will mask anything else in your meal. Don't order it.

Certain restaurants should never be visited whether they supply numbers or not. Taco Bell, MacDonald's and Wendy's are national chains that generated American obesity in the first place. Give them, and most Mexican restaurants, a wide berth.

It is possible to eat at Subway rationally in a way that won't contribute to your obesity. However, make your sandwich a six inch sub not a foot-long,' don't have the slabs of processed cheese, don't eat olives and don't ask the server to slather your sandwich with mayonnaise and other dressings. Their advertised 325 calories can easily leap up to 800 or 900 if the customer doesn't take responsibility.

Finally, losing weight is a matter of eating less and doing more'. So in addition to taking your own responsibility for what you eat in a restaurant park as far away from the establishment as you can, so that you get a little exercise walking there and back. Those people who roll up to the take-out window at Taco Bell are well on their way to dieing of diabetes.

Learn more about this author, John Graham.
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