Daily Dose of Common Sense

In New York City, a law was passed in 2008 that required chain restaurants post the calorie counts of their menu items. The early results are in, and it appears that most people don’t change their eating habits after knowing the amount of calories in the food.

A new study, performed by some NYU and Yale professors, tracked customers in four fast-food restaurants in poor neighborhoods of NYC:

It found that about half the customers noticed the calorie counts, which were prominently posted on menu boards. About 28 percent of those who noticed them said the information had influenced their ordering, and 9 out of 10 of those said they had made healthier choices as a result.

But when the researchers checked receipts afterward, they found that people had, in fact, ordered slightly more calories than the typical customer had before the labeling law went into effect, in July 2008.

Anyone who thought these calorie postings would be the end to the obesity problem in this country were deluded. People want to eat what they want to eat. Knowing how unhealthy it is doesn’t counteract the convenience and the cost. It will take a lot more than a few small numbers up on a menu board to educate people on how to make smart food choices. Also, these restaurants don’t offer a ton of healthy options. Even some of the salads aren’t exactly healthy in terms of calories.

Plus, it’s hard to order a salad when the smell of french fries is swirling around you like a cloud. A greasy, delicious cloud.

Photo courtesy of Flickr: ebruli

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 1:21 pm and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.