You Can Lose Weight by Bench-Pressing Your Menu

Prepare for menus that look like phone books:

Battling the bulge, California became the first state Tuesday to require chain restaurants to post calorie content of menu items.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation that will affect about 17,000 facilities once it is fully implemented in 2011.

The measure, Senate Bill 1420, is designed to spark diners to ponder their girth before choosing between a Jumbo Jack and a Burrito Supreme.

"When people go to the grocery store now...they can already read the labels and make informed decisions about what they eat," Schwarzenegger said. "But now they will also have that pleasure when they go to the restaurant."

Schwarzenegger's signing of the menu-labeling bill came two months after he approved legislation to ban restaurants from using trans fats by January 2010.

The governor, a former Mr. Universe, also has cracked down in recent years on sales of soda pop, candy and other junk food in schools. ...

"It's tough to eat better without information to make the best decisions," said Sen. Alex Padilla, a Los Angeles Democrat who proposed the menu labeling bill.

Do you really need a calorie count on a menu to know that your healthiest food choice would be somewhere other than a chain fast-food joint? California legislators thing we're all stupid and unable to function in our daily lives unless they lead us along.

And for those of you who are smirking because you don't live in California, watch out. What starts in California tends to spread across the country...like a disease.