A debate about the merits of requiring restaurants to post calorie content on their menus is about to play out again, this time in Washington, D.C.

Proposed legislation before Congress would require restaurants with 20 or more locations to post the calories of food items on their menus, menu boards or otherwise in a place where customers could easily see it. It has been named the LEAN Act, which stands for Labeling Education and Nutrition.

If that sounds familiar, it is because state lawmakers attempted to pass a similar bill during the legislative session earlier this year. The proposed state law would have required restaurants with at least 15 locations nationwide to post calorie content on their menus.

The bill was one of a series of health care reforms coming out of a legislative committee that studied the issue between sessions. It passed the Senate, but was killed in a House of Delegates committee as committee members munched on sausage biscuits and other fast foods brought in before the hearing.

Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, who sponsored the state bill, said he was pleased with the LEAN Act. He noted it is based on a regulation already in place in New York City.

"The level (of restaurants) is high enough for most public health experts to feel it will make a big difference," he said.

Critics of the state bill argued it was unfair because it exempted many smaller "mom and pop" restaurants from posting calorie information, even if their menu items had just as many if not more calories than those items at larger chain restaurants.

They also said it would be expensive to implement. Oshel Craigo, CEO of Better Foods Inc., which runs Tudors Biscuit World and Gino's Pizza and Spaghetti, estimated the state legislation would have cost his restaurants $750,000.

He also said it was unfair because it exempted grocery stores and convenience stores -- the latter selling more prepared food than either Tudors or Gino's.

However, Craigo said he supported the LEAN Act. A major reason he was against the state bill was that if other states followed suit, then companies such as his would face a patchwork of different laws across the nation. A national law provides uniformity, he said.

"We wanted the state to mirror what was being done nationally," he said.

Health advocates have been pushing for menu labeling to help curb the nation's collective growing waistline. West Virginia has one of the nation's highest obesity rates.

Obesity along with other poor lifestyle choices, such as smoking, play a significant part in driving up health care costs, according to advocates. Better nutrition would lead to a decline in chronic disease. Posting calorie content may help consumers make smarter decisions, they say.

House Health and Human Resources Chairman Don Perdue, D-Wayne, said he was generally pleased with the LEAN Act. Still, one of his concerns was the law might not make clear that the methods restaurants use to communicate calorie content should be easy for customers to understand.

"If it becomes too complex in what a consumer can see, then the message may get buried in the verbiage," he said. "I want to make sure the message will be clear to consumers."