Amassing data to cut a big topic down to size

Today one of New York Times's editorials, Calorie Counters, focused on the impact of required by New York law calorie postings in restaurants. This is an example of testing of a public policy decision made in the face of the disaster. Basically, this decision relies on consumers to be knowledge about how calories affect weight (we won't go into the complicated debates- some based in science, some no more than dubious sales pitches- about how the calories from (over)processed carbohydrates might have more of an impact than say the same calories from a bunch of vegetables).

The decision to take in less calories seems to be, when compared to a similar study done in fast food restaurants in low-income neighborhood, more possible if the consumer is from an ZIP-code with higher incomes and a larger share of college degrees. The easy conclusion would be to say that educated people of means are more "rational," but that is doubtful. What they have is more choices, marketed to them, plus an education that makes it somewhat easier to understand the consequences of the posted data.

The editorial concluded that what we should do is get "healthy" chain restaurants into poorer neighborhoods. Ironically, the best way to cut calories is to cook your own food. And to educated people about the consequences of obesity- as if there was agreement about what those consequences were. Maybe we could get a "Fat Bonds" effort from the Advertising world. Except they already slam us with thousands of campaigns about obesity and our anxieties about it.

I am considering looking specifically at calorie posting and food choice policies (like trying to ban sodas from schools) as a way to cut this huge topic down to a blog bite.