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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Studies raise questions about impact of menu calorie counts
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tracking calories at chain restaurants is supposed to
become easier next year, but new studies raise questions about whether the
counts actually make a difference for diners and eateries.
Some restaurants already post calorie counts. New York City was first in the
country to require it, and six years later researchers say seeing the
caloric consequences didn't automatically lead to leaner choices.
New York University researchers used receipts and surveys at McDonald's,
Burger King, KFC and Wendy's to track customer purchases. 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.
Beginning in December 2016, chain restaurants and certain other retailers
that sell prepared food will have to list calorie content on their menus.
As to whether consumers will take notice, researchers reported Monday that
just over a third of customers noticed calorie counts on the chains' menus
last year, compared with about half when the law took effect in 2008, and 9
percent claimed to use them to order fewer calories.
There may be greater effect at different kinds of restaurants, cautioned
associate professor Brian Elbel of NYU Langone Medical Center.
A second study, also in the journal Health Affairs, raises the possibility
that menu labeling might have more of an effect on what restaurants offer
than on customer ordering habits.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University used a database that collects
calorie content from 66 large U.S. chains to compare menus from restaurants
that voluntarily list calorie counts in all their locations around the
country — McDonalds, Chick-Fil-A, Panera Bread, Starbucks and Jamba Juice
— with the rest.
Menus of the voluntarily posting chains averaged nearly 140 fewer calories
per item, researchers reported.
While these restaurants do boast calorie-packed products, "there are more
healthier options on those menus" that bring down the per-item average, said
study co-author Julia Wolfson, a fellow at Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health.
She couldn't tell whether those chains had more lower-calorie items all
along or introduced them ahead of menu labeling. But new items they
introduced in 2014 had nearly 110 fewer calories on average than competitors
' new menu items, she said.
Calorie counts aside, a third study shows parents will order healthier kids'
options. Tufts University researchers examined purchases at 13 Silver Diner
locations after the regional chain changed its kids menu in 2012, adding
healthier entrees and sides and removing fries and soda, which could be
substituted upon request.
More than half of kids' orders contained fries before the menu change. That
dropped to 21 percent over the past year, while nearly two-thirds instead
came with strawberries.
Source URL: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/studies-raise-questions-about-impact-menu-calorie-counts |
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