New Study Reveals That Those Calorie Counts on Menus Aren’t Helping

You know those calorie counts next to fast mood menu items that really put into perspective just how naughty you’re being with your food choices? Apparently, they’re not doing you any good. These findings were founded by researchers at the New York University Langone Medical Center, who added up the amount of calories 7,699 people opted for at fast food restaurants in both New Jersey as well as New York City. The study was conducted between January 2013 and June 2014.

What they found was that when they went to restaurants whose calorie counts for items were available on the menu, they ended up ordering 804 to 839 calorie options. However, when they went to restaurants without this information provided, they ordered meals that ranged from 802 to 857 calories.

What’s even more alarming is that people’s calorie consumption has gone up. The researchers of this study found this out after comparing their results to a study in 2008, which is when New York City originally introduced the calorie counting rule for fast food restaurants. The previous study found that people ordered 783-calorie menu items when the calories were revealed on the menu, and 756 when they weren’t.

According to a new study published in the journal Health Affairs, they don’t actually help people make better food choices by ordering lower calorie menu options.

The authors of the study believe this might be because people are creatures of habit; opting to simply order what they always have and not giving the calorie count a second thought. “Or maybe they are just going to these fast-food restaurants for reasons other than maximizing their health,”  senior investigator Brian Elbel, Ph.D., an associate professor of population health at New York University Langone Medical Center says.

However, it seems as though the restaurants who do voluntarily provide the calories per menu item typically have a larger amount of low-cal options than those who don’t do this says another study published in the same journal. The study even found that those who do disclose this information have almost 140 fewer calories than the average item compared to the ones that don’t.

When you go to a fast food restaurant, do you pay attention to the calories listed?

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Source: Women’s Health

 

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