By the end of this year you will be seeing a lot more menu items with their caloric content posted alongside.  Why?  Multnomah county passed into law a requirement for every chain restaurant (the restaurant must have 15 or more locations nationally) to post the calories in the menu item alongside of it.  This law was passed in an effort to make people more aware of what they are eating, and possibly influence some unhealthy eating habits.  Some people feel that this law will cause the restaurants some hardship in an already tough economy.  However, the county feels that these minor changes will not harm business and are necessary since two out of every three people in the county can be classified as overweight.