Next time you are in a New York City restaurant, you might find calories listed alongside menu items, displayed just as prominently as the item price.
New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has issued a proposal calling for calorie disclosure in certain city dining establishments.
The proposal is an attempt to combat that city's growing problem with diabetes and obesity.
Experts say that Philadelphia, along with other major cities, could potentially follow suit.
"I think, just because the precedent has now been set in New York City, that other major cities might be willing to pursue" calorie disclosure, said Linda Sartor, a nutrition specialist at the Penn Rodebaugh Diabetes Center.
As of now, regulations like those proposed by New York don't exist in any other major U.S. city, New York DHS spokeswoman Sara Markt said.
But according to Sartor, the need for calorie disclosure is just as great in Philadelphia as it is in its northern neighbor.
New Yorkers get a third or more of their calories from food eaten outside the home, and Sartor said that this statistic also holds here.
"Most of us as Americans eat a large number of meals outside the home," she said, adding that recent statistics show that 61 percent of the American population is overweight or obese.
But Charlene Compher, a professor of Nutrition Science in Penn's Nursing School, said calorie disclosure will most likely not effectively improve nutrition among those who need it most.
"Philadelphia has large sections of the city with poverty, where just knowing the caloric content of a meal is less effective than the price asked," she wrote in an e-mail, adding that obesity is most prevalent among poorer demographics.
She said she thinks it would be more effective to stock stores and restaurants in poor neighborhoods with healthier foods.
But Sartor said that "knowledge is power" when it comes to nutrition.
Calorie disclosure "might help people to think twice before they just eat what they want to eat," she said.
She added that Mayor John Street has largely focused on improving city nutrition with changes within the school system, such as healthier lunch options.
In New York, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is in the process of compiling reactions to the proposal after the public hearing, which took place Oct. 30, Markt said.
She said that the final decision on the proposal rests in the hands of the Board of Health.
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