Metro calorie posting vote moved to March

The Metro Board of Health will meet for a work session before its Feb. 5 meeting to discuss possible changes to a proposal that would force restaurants to post calorie information on their menus. Board members will meet at 2 p.m. in Room 212 of the Lentz Public Health Center, 311 23rd Ave. N. The regular meeting begins at 4 p.m. The board had planned to vote on adoption of the regulation at its February meeting. To allow more time for discussion, the board now plans to vote on March 5. The proposal would require all Davidson County restaurants with 15 or more establishments to include calorie information for items on their menus. Calorie data would be printed next to the menu item, similar to the price. Restaurants also would have to post a notice that adults should limit daily intake to 2,000 calories. "I don't have any thought that if we passed a menu labeling ordinance, that we'd have any kind of quick cure to obesity in Nashville," Dr. Ruth Stewart, a board member, said at a meeting Thursday. "So we're really not targeting people who may already be obese. We're hopefully providing information for families who have children, future children, future teenagers and hopefully starting slowly to turn around the kind of numbers we're seeing in Nashville." — RACHEL STULTSrstults@tennessean.com