Brian Mayer on WNYC.

If you've been to a fast food restaurant in New York City recently, you may have noticed

a little triangle on the menu next to certain items.

Some have a salt shaker. Others have

a tablespoon of sugar. Those are warning labels indicating a dish has more sodium or added sugar

than you should probably eat in an entire day. New York City implemented the country's first

added sugar's warning labels at chain restaurants last October.

Meanwhile, the sodium warning labels were adopted back in 2015. Now, the health commissioner who

oversaw the city's rollout of sodium warning labels is arguing for a set of bills that state lawmakers

are considering that would put similar warning labels on junk food at chain

restaurants across the state and limit how that food is marketed to kids.

Three bills.

They're called the Sodium Warning Bill, the Sweet Truth Act, and the Predatory Marketing

Prevention Act.

And with me now to make the case for these bills is Dr. Mary

Bassett, Public Health Physician, former New York City Health Commissioner, and New York State

Health Commissioner, and Professor of Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard T.H. Chan School

of Public Health. Dr. Bassett, always good to talk. Welcome back to WNYC. Thanks very much for having

me, Brian. Pleasure to be here. By way of background, you were the New York City Health

Commissioner when the city rolled out sodium warning labels back in 2015, the first policy of its

kind in the country, I believe. So what does the city already have and how would the sodium warning bill go further?

Well, you know, of course New York City has long pioneered giving people more information about the food that they eat in fast food chains.

...