Calories in movie theater snacks

A new California law requires chain businesses to post calorie counts on their menus. Many restaurants have shameful work-arounds, like In-N-Out burger, which doesn't have to tell us how many calories the extra spread adds to an "animal style" burger because it's not technically on the menu, though everybody orders it that way.

I want to credit AMC Theatres for making its calorie counts legible and fairly straightforward. This did not come without a fight, as the Republican party in California suggested that the public doesn't need such information in movie theatres; what do we think this is, Russia? Americans need their freedoms! But that fight's over, and the calorie counts are posted.

They are shocking. And enlightening.

Extra Cheese is a meal in itself

Ice cream has fewer calories than popcorn, but by the time I got around to taking photos, my local AMC had eliminated ice cream from the menu. Perhaps patrons didn't want a low-cal snack? ICEEs, frozen drinks made from artificial ingredients, are now the lowest-calorie snack, though at least pretzels, chicken tenders and hot dogs have some nutrition.

Movie nachos with a large Coke have 2470 calories total -- about 25% more calories than the average person should eat in an entire day.

In fact, the large movie-theatre Coke reinforces why New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to ban such sizes: By itself, it has 1080 calories -- nearly twice as much as a McDonald's Big Mac (550 calories, and at least some nutritional value). Patrons might fool themselves by reading 0-1080 calories; that's because diet drinks have 0.

Gotta wonder how many people enjoyed movie nachos and a giant Coke while watching "The Hunger Games."

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