The nearly six-year-old mandate requiring calorie counts on chain restaurant menus in the New York City area has done little to reduce the number of calories people eat. A new study of 7,699 fast-food diners that compares food orders in places with and without calorie counts, is believed to be the first long-term analysis of the effects of menu labeling.
Researchers say it also offers evidence of its possible impact as the federal government prepares to introduce the policy nationwide in December 2016 as part of its Affordable Care Act. The study, published in the journal Health Affairs, shows the average number of calories bought by patrons at each sitting between January 2013 and June 2014 was statistically the same as those in a similar survey of 1,068 fast-food diners in 2008, when New York City initially imposed menu labeling.
Diners were surveyed at major fast-food chains: McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, and Wendy’s. Calorie counts in the 2013-2014 analysis averaged between 804 and 839 per meal at menu-labeled restaurants, and between 802 and 857 per meal at non-labeled eateries. They averaged 783 per meal for labeled restaurants and 756 per meal for non-labeled restaurants shortly after the policy was introduced.
For the surveys, diners entering the fast-food restaurant were asked to return their itemised receipt to research assistants and answer some follow-up questions in person in exchange for two dollars. “Our study suggests that menu labeling, in particular at fast-food restaurants, will not on its own lead to any lasting reductions in calories consumed,” says study senior investigator Brian Elbel, associate professor of population health at New York University.
Elbel says that a combination of policies, such as marketing regulations or price subsidies for healthy foods, may have a positive impact on the nation’s obesity epidemic. There is still cause for optimism, he says, because the current and previous studies show at least some awareness of the bloated calorie counts in most fast food.
However, the number of people paying attention to the calorie counts diminishes over time. At the start of the 2013 study, 45 percent of survey respondents said they noticed the calorie counts, a decrease from 2008 levels. As the study continued, this number dropped six months later to 41 percent and dropped again in 2014, to 37 percent, in the last set of surveys.
— source: www.futurity.org
Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.
