New Yorkers will now get a better idea of their own dietary habits, after a new rule requiring all New York chain restaurants to post calorie information on their menus took effect this Friday.

In a world where the lack of time, and often bad choices, lead us to food on-the-go, and where obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other health problems have reached scary numbers, revising our food habits is likely to have a positive impact on our lives.

We may often be unaware of it, but one single meal at a fast-food restaurant covers the number of calories normally needed for one or two days: how does 3,000 calories on a burger sound? Not to mention the fries and the drinks that people order with the burger...

Health experts have long argued about unhealthy food habits, but perhaps seeing it with their own eyes will make people reconsider what they're eating. Posting the number of calories on menus could also have a positive impact on the number of people suffering from conditions influenced or triggered by eating habits.

The problem is that if some people will actually get a reality check, some will continue with their daily habits and stop counting the calories. This will put the people in the second category in the negative statistics on food-related health problems in a few years. At the end of the day, it's a matter of choice.

Chain restaurants such as McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks, KFC, Dunkin Donuts and many more now have to comply with the new rule. Restaurants had enough time to prepare for the big day, but the ones that didn't will face fines of thousands of dollars from health inspectors that do periodical checks to see if the restaurants respect the rule or not.