Restaurants do the wrong thing

If restaurants have a chance to do the right thing...they don't.

Calorielab.com reports: In an effort to get around rules requiring chain restaurants to post nutritional information on menus in New York City, several chains have removed nutrition facts from their restaurants and websites. The rule only applies to restaurants with standardized menu options that were making their nutritional information available by March 1, so chains like Wendy’s, White Castle and Quiznos removed nutritional information from stores or deactivated the nutrition information pages on their websites to avoid having to meet the city’s requirements.

The changes brought a tart response from Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden.

"If some restaurants stop displaying calorie information to avoid making it useful to customers, we should wonder what they're so ashamed of," he said in a statement.

The companies say the move is temporary while they figure out a long-term strategy that will work for customers.

What would work for customers is to provide more information, not less. Wendy's, White Castle and Quiznos need to do the right thing by not listening to lawyers, but to their customers.