Before the cities began requiring labels, people ate about 783 calories per meal at labeled food spots and 756 per meal at places that didn’t label them.
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As the researchers point out, there are a few at least mildly promising alternatives to calorie counts that have a bit more evidence behind them: “Laboratory studies have shown encouraging responses to the use of stop signs for less healthful foods and exercise equivalents needed to burn the calories in specific menu items, ranking items according to their calorie content, or supplementing the existing numbers with the recommended number of calories to consume in a day or at a meal”.
But do consumers really take the calorie count of their fast food burgers and fries in account when ordering? “Given how often Americans eat in restaurants, if more chain restaurants decrease calories on their menus to a level that we are seeing in restaurants that already label, this has the potential to reduce population-level obesity”.
‘This could get consumers to eat healthier without having to change their behaviour, something that is a very hard thing to do and sustain’.
The researchers found that the average calories bought by men and women between January 2013 and June 2014 was statically unchanged from a previous survey of over 1,000 diners in 2008 when New York City had first required menu labeling.
In New York City where menus were labeled, calories averaged between 804 and 839 per meal, essentially the same as the 802 to 857 calories at fast-food locations in New Jersey that didn’t post calorie content.
A few restaurants already post calorie counts. And as the calorie counts became fixtures in the city, that percentage dropped off to as low as 37% in 2013 and 2014.
Brian Elbel, one of the authors of the study conducted by New York University School of Medicine, said one reason why consumers are not changing their eating habits despite menu labeling could be because the average fast-food customer might not be eating fast food due to health issues. Five of the 66 chains have introduced calorie counts on menus ahead of the December 2016 start date, including Panera and Jamba Juice in 2010, McDonald’s in 2012, and Chick-fil-A and Starbucks in 2013. Meanwhile, only about half of consumers even noticed the calorie counts when they went up on menu boards in 2008.
Overall, the chains with voluntary labeling averaged almost 140 fewer calories per item than those that do not post the calorie counts on menus, with much of that difference attributed to lower-calorie food rather than beverage items.
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Elbel also told Reuters Health that so far, researchers only looked at fast-food restaurants, and there’s no way to know how menu labeling at other types of restaurants may affect people’s behaviors.
