Ed Burke vs. Fast Food, Round 5 (or 6, We Forget)

By Anthony Todd in Food on Mar 13, 2008 5:37PM

14th Ward Alderman Edward Burke is at it again, with his radical attempts to give you nutritional information and clean up your water! His proposal that restaurants should provide calorie counts on their menus, originally proposed 15 months ago, is back on the table. It’s been revised to only include chain restaurants (defined as having more than 15 locations nationwide), but really. How silly of him! No city would ever do anything like that! Oh, wait. New York’s version of the same ordinance takes effect on March 31st. And the Center for Science in the Public Interest has been trying to pass state laws along the same lines for 2 years now.

Chicago does seem to be a bit behind on this one, and Mayor Daley’s only response to the original proposal was “I don’t know, we’ll see.” We completely support the idea of knowing what you’re putting into your mouth. Did you know that a small chocolate milkshake at McDonalds has more calories than a Big Mac? Or that an Asian Crispy Chicken Salad has more calories than a Quarter-Pounder with cheese?

Burke’s other proposal is a response to the recent revelations about pharmaceutical contamination in other metropolitan water supplies. Along with Alderman Marge Laurino (39th), Burke wants to create pharmaceutical drop-off points, so that the drugs can be properly disposed of.