L.A. Official Wants a Change of Menu

With two fellow council members, Perry also assembled an incentive package aimed at attracting supermarkets and sit-down restaurants. And she backs efforts to bring fresh fruit and vegetables to corner stores.

But the proposed move against fast food is what brought attention -- and, from the California Restaurant Association, sharp concern. The trade group last week filed suit against San Francisco for requiring some chain restaurants to list calories, saturated fat, carbohydrates and sodium on their menus.

Warming to the challenge, city attorney Dennis Herrera issued a statement calling the 59-page complaint "nearly as bloated as Burger King's Triple Whopper Sandwich with Cheese (1,230 calories, 82 grams of fat)." Further noting that a federal judge upheld a similar regulation in New York after a trade group asserted that it violated the First Amendment, Herrera termed the irony "as rich as an order of Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing (2,900 calories, 182 grams of fat)."

In Los Angeles, what alarmed the trade group was Perry's use of the words "moratorium" and "obesity."

"You know, that powerful language does a lot of damage to the industry," said lobbyist Andrew Casana. He said the terms might no longer be appropriate after Perry revised the language to permit chains such as Marie Callender's.

"You can't play the obesity card and then invite in a place that sells pies," Casana said.

Perry said her proposal, which is awaiting a committee hearing, hit a raw nerve outside her constituency. "I've been called a fascist, a nanny-stater," she said.

But researchers and activists praised the strategy as a cutting-edge application of government power to promote health.

"As far as we're aware, it's fairly precedent-setting," said Mark Vallianatos, director of the Center for Food and Justice at Occidental College. "It's an important public statement on how planning intersects with food health.

"The solution is also grocery stores and improving corner stores, and how do farmers markets survive in low-income areas? And whatever else we can do to make sure this generation isn't the first since the Industrial Revolution to have a lower life expectancy than their parents."