Mentioning Calorie Count in Food Menu - Does it Really Help?
Posted on: 05/Nov/2015 4:36:41 PM
The compulsion made on mentioning the calorie count of restaurant menus in the New York city has done very little in reducing the total calorie count people eat. A study was recently made on 7699 fast food diners in various places that indicate calorie count of menus and those that don`t. This research is in fact first of its kind study on menu labeling.
The study reports were published in the journal Health Affairs. This indicates that the total number of calories consumed by patrons between January 2013 and June 2015 was more or less the same as those 1068 fast food diners in 2008 in the New York city when the menu labeling was imposed.
The diners were surveyed at fast food chains including Burger King, KFC, Wendy`s, and McDonald`s. The total calorie count of a meal was around 802 to 857 at non-labelled eateries; he same with labeled restaurants was 783 per meal and 756 per meal after the introduction of the policy.
This survey involved requesting the diners to submit their itemized receipt while returning from the restaurants. These were given to research assistants and the diners were also told to answer a few follow-up questions individually for which they were given two dollars in exchange.
Study senior investigator Brian Elbel, the Associate Professor of population health at New York University states that menu labeling will not help in reducing the total calorie consumed.
Elbel adds that introducing marketing regulations or price subsidies for healthy and nutritive food may bring forth a positive impact on the overall nation`s obesity epidemic.
At the same time, the total number of individuals who are attentive to the calorie count diminishes with time. At the start of the year 2013, there were 45 percent people who said they noticed calorie count. This percentage got reduced to lower levels by 2008.
