Calorie Posting Fail?
According to the New York Times, the law mandating that chain restaurants in NYC post the calorie counts of their food isn’t working… or so a recent study reports.
The study, by several professors at New York University and Yale, tracked customers at four fast-food chains — McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken — in poor neighborhoods of New York City where there are high rates of obesity.
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.
…Tameika Coates, 28, who works in the gift shop at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, ordered a Big Mac, 540 calories, with a large fries, 500 calories, and a large Sprite, 310 calories.
“I don’t really care too much,” Ms. Coates said. “I know I shouldn’t, ’cause I’m too big already,” she added with a laugh.
April Matos, a 24-year-old family specialist, bought her 3-year-old son, Amari, a Happy Meal with chicken McNuggets, along with a Snack Wrap for herself. She said with a shrug that she had no interest in counting calories. “Life is short,” she said, adding that she used to be a light eater. “I started eating everything now I’m pregnant.”
Nutrition and public health experts said the findings showed how hard it was to change behavior, but they said it was not a reason to abandon calorie posting.
NYC is conducting its own, considerably larger study, so this isn’t the final verdict, although the early returns don’t look promising.
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Makster on 07 Oct 2009 at 9:32 am #
This dosen’t suprize me at all. People will eat what they want and not what they should.
Like Ms. Coates said “I don’t really care to much.” “I know I shouldn’t, cause I’m big already.” That is a prime example of the average person.
April Matos, saying “Life is short,” is foolish. It will be a lot shorter for her and her 3-year-old son eating that way.
So posting calorie counts for food is not going to change a lot of people in my opinion.
Paul on 07 Oct 2009 at 4:32 pm #
The big question here is…
Why did the 28% of the people who noticed the calorie postings and said they were influenced by them choose higher-calorie offerings than usual?
I’m not sure I’d be so to quick to say the postings are not “working”, if you define “working” as merely drawing customers’ attention to the caloric value of their food choices.
April and Tameika may be lost causes, but it’s no surprise to me that there are going to be people who will order whatever, regardless of the consequences. After all, it’s fairly well established that fast food is dense in calories and low in nutritional value. Some folks don’t care. C’est la vie.
The study may have had different results too, had it been conducted in a different part of the city with a different demographic. Unfortunately, people in extremely poor areas often have much fewer healthy food choices and access to grocery stores, and instead, have access to a disproportionate amount of fast food restaurants.
So failure? I dunno. I’m going to wait to see the results of the larger study…