The countdown to counting calories (have it your way while you still won’t feel bad about it)

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You’ve got a little time –- until Jan. 1, 2011, to be exact –- to get your fill of those chain restaurant foods that you’d rather not know too much about. That’s when chains with 20 or more restaurants will have to post calorie information on menus and menu boards, under a law signed this week by the governor.

I’m guessing it will be one of those ignorance-was-bliss moments. Just as I never look at the clock when insomnia strikes so I can fool myself into thinking I got enough sleep, I don’t want to know too much about those fries or that buttermilk bar or burrito. For me, the number of calories might be better left unsaid.

On a recent trip to New York I found myself at an airport Starbucks, hungry and in desperate need of caffeine. I left the stand with drink in hand, but passed on the pastries –- thanks to the posted calorie counts. Everything that appealed to me was 400 to 500 calories –- nearly a third of what I can eat in a day and not gain weight.

Which brings me to wonder what will happen in California once those chain restaurants let us in on their nutrition information.

During the summer, three-quarters of the people surveyed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest said that nutritional information on menus would affect what they ordered. We’ll see. Maybe it will only affect how guilty we all feel.

-- Mary MacVean