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Requiring that restaurants list calories and fat grams on their menus is not only impractical but also unnecessary. For those diners who wants to know how many calories and fat grams are in an item, they should do their research and find out approximately how many calories and how much fat a particular dish has.

The majority of diners do not need to know exactly how many calories and grams of fat there are in a dish. The reason is that they go to a restaurant to enjoy their meal, not to follow a diet. For those people who are very particular about what they eat, the best solution is for them to eat at home or to order restaurant dishes that are very healthy such as a mixed green salad or bowl of fruit.

If businesses must go to extremes to accomodate their customers, the result is inconvenience. Imagine if all movie theatres had to provide movies with subtitles for the deaf, all publishers had to supply versions of their books in braille for the blind and all public buses had to be equipped with toilets. This would severely inconvenience businesses and discourage them from serving the public.

It is not that businesses should not try to accommodate their customers but simply that they should not be forced to go to excessive lengths to do so. Movies with subtitles are available, particularly in DVD versions. Also, in many countries the blind have a number of books available to them in braille and long-distance buses often do have a toilet onboard. Those who provide such services do so because they see the benefit and not because they are forced. If restaurants were forced to list the calories and grams of fat on their menus, many would certainly comply but probably would not see the benefit since the majority of their diners would not rely on such information anyway. Also, these restaurants would maybe then feel the need to change their menus to provide dishes with a lower number of calories and grams of fat.

Most diners probably do not choose to go to a restaurant because they are intent on restricting the number of calories and grams of fat in their diet. If restaurants are required to provide such dietary information, the result may be that the most delicious dishes will be modified or even eliminated to conceal the high number of calories and grams of fat. This would indeed by unfortunate because for gourmets taste and presentation are more important than calories and fat. Also, such information could make it difficult for diners to enjoy their meal. For example, a diner may feel guilty to learn how many calories and grams of fat are in a filet mignon and thus may choose not to order it at all.

For some diners it may be important to know the number of calories and grams of fat in the food they order. For the majority of diners, however, this is not a necessity and may in fact negatively affect the dining experience. As a result, restaurants should be free to decide whether or not they wish to list the calories and grams of fat on their menus.

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