It's Election Day, time to make your way to the polls to make your voice heard.

The co-hosts on The View like to discuss hot topics -- please, oh please, let the election be over so they can stop fighting about that hot mess -- and on Wednesday, they hit on the topic of New York calorie counts. You know, the whole thing where New York restaurants must post calorie counts on their menus -- yep, if you're in the Outback and are about to chow down, you're going to be faced with the cold, hard facts about your favorite Bloomin' Onion: 2,275 calories.

The calorie-count mandate was effective this past April, but the buzz is still buzzing: Some like it, some don't, and co-host and comedienne Joy Behar -- well, she's on the not-liking-it side (she doesn't like John McCain either, by the way). Here's exactly what she says about in-your-face calorie counts: Listing calories on a menu is like listing STDs at a brothel. No beating around the bush for this gal. The way she sees it, when you walk into McDonald's you know what you're going to get: Lots of calories. When you walk into a brothel, well same thing, except for the calorie part.

What do you think? Do you like calorie counts? Not like them? Or do you not really care?

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Still stuck on who will get your vote on November 4? Maybe you need a new criteria on which to base your decision. Like food. Check out what your front-running candidates use for fuel.

Barack Obama goes for comfort food. A steaming bowl of chili is one favorite, and the folks at Eating Well magazine who dug up this news say they recommend for health reasons that this Democrat make his dish low in calorie and high in fiber -- check out this recipe. Running mate Joe Biden is a fan of Italian food. When he eats at home or dines out, he usually picks pasta -- a little penne with tomato sauce and basil gets his vote. How would Eating Well spice this one up? By using whole-wheat penne pasta and raw tomato sauce.

John McCain is a meat lover. Baby back ribs are tops for this Republican, who'd be wise to opt for a heart-healthy, oven cooked pulled-pork sandwich. And for his running mate? Does it surprise you that Sarah Palin likes a good moose stew? A hearty Flemish beef stew, made in a slow-cooker with beer for extra flavor, comes recommended by the Eating Well team

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The gals on The View told yesterday that all this election stuff is making them eat. Watching the news, the debates, all the political commentary swirling around in the air -- it's making them nervous, anxious, downright hungry.

Sherri Shepherd says she was shoveling down Ruffles potato chips the other night while watching election television. Elisabeth Hasselbeck reports she's been eating mindlessly. And Joy Behar is eating her anxiety away. While these women are surely revved up politically -- have you seen their on-air disputes? Poor Hasselback, not one co-host agrees with the girl's conservative perspectives -- yet hearing their take on election-inspired eating was news to me. It makes sense -- I mean, watching TV is a known to promote snacking -- but I don't find myself eating all that much more.

Tell us: Are you eating your way through this election season? Do you fear politics will make you fat? If so, try cutting down on calories with these gallery snacks.

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We planted our first vegetable garden this past spring and enjoyed it so much that we just spent the weekend doubling its size for next year. With a very small financial investment and a little bit of physical labor, we've been able to contribute fresh, healthy, organic foods to our menu and teach our kids some lessons about food production as well.

Rising food costs, food safety concerns, and an increased awareness about environmental issues have lead to an increase in backyard gardening. And some food activists are hoping to encourage that trend by putting an organic garden on one of the most well-known lawns in Amercia ... The White House.

When OnDayOne.org asked citizens to share their ideas for a better world, Eat the View shot quickly to the top. Eat the View is a program that advocates the placement of edible landscapes in high visibility places. You don't get much more visible than the White House! Activists hope that by promoting these kinds of gardens, backyard gardeners will again be encouraged to pull out their seeds and hoes. The idea is, if people start growing more of their own food, there will be less pollution created by food miles, pesticides, and waste.

So will the next President grow a garden at the White House? Time will tell. Sustainable practices aren't a new idea at the Presidential home; in 1917, President Wilson replaced power lawn mowers with a herd of sheep.

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Come November 4th, 2008, a new President will be elected into office in the United States. This much we know almost with certainty. What is not known, however, is who that person will be. While I would love to wax on about my political beliefs and who I think the next person will be to sit in the Oval Office, I have no interest in causing a war of words -- polemics aren't really our thing here on That's Fit. Things concerning the human body? Yeah, that's more our speed.

To that end, there are very specific physical traits that many of our past Presidents have possessed, some of which may serve as a predictor of who will win the race for the White House. Newsweek recently used this criteria to create a physical feature-by-feature breakdown of how John McCain and Barack Obama may fare come November.

Here's a summary of their findings...

HEIGHT: Four of the last nine elections have been won by the shorter candidate, giving the 5'7" McCain a fighting chance against the 6'3" Obama. However, in most of those cases the height disparity was not significant, whereas in this case McCain is giving up 6 inches to Obama. The last time anyone overcame such a blatant difference in height was in 1852. What's more, we haven't had a shorter-than-average President since the 5'6" Benjamin Harrison. Advantage: Obama

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Did you know that former President Grover Cleveland once had jaw surgery aboard his yacht to keep his cancer diagnosis secret? In today's world of tell-all press, it's hard to imagine a president getting away with such a thing. Still, during this year's exciting election campaign, a candidate's health issue that could lead voters to turn to vote for someone else is more likely to be swept under the rug than shared with the public.

Some people are asking -- do we, the public, have a right to know what's inside a candidate's medical records? Though it's routine for candidates to reveal their records voluntarily, some are saying that candidates should be required to undergo a full and thorough physical by a non-biased medical professional, and that the results should be made available to voters.

Because presidential candidates are still citizens, letting the Average Joe dig through personal information is obviously a privacy issue. What do you think -- should candidates bare all in order to be elected, or should their health information be kept private like everyone else?

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What are your priorities for this upcoming election? Everyone has a different concept of what's most important -- For some, it's education; for others, it's taxes. For me, it's healthcare, after watching a loved one pass away as a direct result of neglect from the system.

If healthcare tops your list of priorities too, there's a website dedicated to giving you the inside scoop into the platforms of the candidates -- from the health-conscious perspective. Health8.org gives you all the news and views regarding health and the election.

How does your candidate stack up?

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Now that health care has become the proverbial obesity sufferer eating at the economy while politicians prepare for an election year, the issue is finally grabbing the attention it's deserved for quite some time. Money and emergencies tend to motivate.

As Brian White pointed out in a recent post , Clinton finally trotted out her plan on the heels of Obama and Edwards while the Republican candidates continue to talk about terror.

The plans have differences. But basically, they give hope for the 40-some million uninsured and aim to put tax credits in the pockets of others who are thankfully insured, but shelling out thousands per year in premiums, deductibles and co-pays to keep their families healthy. You know, the lucky ones, paying dearly to live and work in the richest country in the world.

Clinton has scored many reviewers' points for pragmatism. Obama claims his plan is similar to Clinton's but better. Edwards said the same, but goes a step further in the fine print. His proposal, which offers more detail than the other candidates', includes cutting off health care for the president, Congress and all political appointees in mid 2009 if a universal health care plan for all Americans has not been passed by then. I've marked my calendar. But, of course, Election Day comes first.

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It makes no sense, but it seems that as health care becomes a bigger and bigger issue in this country some of the people who should care about it the most, the doctors, are voting less and less. A study coming out of Johns Hopkins Medical School looked at different professions and much they participated in voting in presidential elections and found that although not at the very bottom of the list (laborers came in last) doctors are shockingly uninvolved in the political process. 1 in 4 doctors haven't bothered to vote in the last 3 presidential elections.

And guess who came in first, with the best turnout of all? Lawyers, of course.

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