Talk about sticker shock! When I walked into my local Dunkin Donuts, staring me in the face, in huge type, were the obscene calorie counts for all my favorites–including 340 calories for a chocolate-glazed donut, and 660 for a chocolate-chip muffin! Thanks to New York Mayor Felix Unger (I mean, Michael Bloomberg), fast-food eateries now prominently warn customers just what they are getting into when they stuff their faces with junk food. I suppose this is good risk management. Or is it merely obnoxious?

I don't quite know what to make of this. On the one hand, in both insurance and risk management, information is power. If you can quantify a risk to determine the odds or cost of something going wrong, the exposure is a lot easier to manage. Having hard numbers handy also helps sell senior management on the importance of loss control and safety.

As risk managers of our own lives, having food content broken down on labels allows us to make informed decisions about what to eat, and to be more aware of the potential consequences. Mayor Bloomberg's crusade to label all calorie counts–he'd like regular restaurants to offer full disclosure as well–speaks to that.