The American people would be much healthier if we all ate sensibly. But eating decisions should best be kept out of the hands of government officials and left to individuals.
So it is encouraging that the Tennessee Senate voted overwhelmingly, 24-7, to forbid unelected local health boards to force restaurants to post calorie counts and nutrition information on their menus. In fact, neither government bodies nor government-appointed boards at any level — federal, state or local — ought to place such requirements on restaurants.
It is no mystery that diets full of greasy, sugary foods promote obesity and all the ills that come with being overweight. But so long as a restaurant is not giving consumers false information about their foods’ calorie counts, it’s not government business to regulate that.
Customers who desire such information are free to patronize restaurants that provide it. If enough customers do so, then more restaurants will respond to the market pressure by providing fuller nutrition information. But in the absence of that market pressure, imposing such rules amounts to an unfunded mandate.
“What the health board never cared about is that it costs our guys money to find out how many calories are in things, and it costs them money to put (nutrition) signs up,” Dan Haskell, of the Tennessee Hospitality Association, told The Associated Press.