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If every restaurant was required to list calories and fat grams on their menu, I believe that it would cause chaos. A simple guideline to calories and fat content is another thing entirely.

It's all very well to say that restaurants should have a list of calories and fat grams on each item of their menu. For fast food chains, it's not a problem. Restaurants like McDonalds, Burger King and KFC have the same foods day in, day out. It is regulated and these companies can easily put the calorific content on their web sites, or even on their menus without having to think much about it. Personally I feel that it should be entirely at the restaurant's discretion and not a legal requirement.

Saying that, out of interest, I took the time to look at a couple of websites regarding the calories in a cheeseburger from Burger King:

www.burgerking.co.uk states that in a cheeseburger there are 253 calories and 11g of fat per 100g. www.weightlossresources.co.uk states that the same burger has 269 calories and 13.4g of fat per 100g. (Bear in mind that the burger itself is approx 150g) This may only seem to be a few calories difference, but when one is counting, every calorie should count, so then why are they different? (24 calories and 3.6g of fat per burger to be precise)

If I go into a restaurant and I am watching my weight, then I am sensible about what I choose. If I am worried about the extra calories that may be added to something I am eating, and it does not state on the menu that a certain item may be cooked in butter instead of extra virgin olive oil,it is also quite easy to ask how the item is cooked and use my common sense as to whether I still want to order that particular item or not. There are many kinds of people that have special dietary requirements which are not listed on an average menu, but if they ask, they will be told whether it is suitable for them or not.

Many restaurants have not only their own seasonal menu, which changes every couple of months, but also a chef that cooks the food to the customer's taste. Sometimes a dash extra of mayonnaise or oil, maybe even an extra pinch of salt or spoonful of cream is required to get the exact taste. Of course you could get the typical amount of calories that should be in your meal, but when you are actually being served the food, will it really be the exact number of calories stated? Quite unlikely.

If it became a legal requirement for chefs to put the amount of calories and the

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