Effects of Menu Labels
This is Aaron Carroll on this study:
It wasn’t surprising that people ordered the most calories from when they had a menu with no information at all. They ordered about 90 calories less if you put calorie information on the menu, and about 100 calories less if you put both calorie information and the minutes you’d need to walk to burn them off on the menu. Here’s the kicker, though. They ordered almost 200 calories less if you put both the calorie information and the distance they’d need to walk to burn off the calories.
People don’t realize that restaurants intentonally don’t make the calorie-count trade-offs we make in our own kitchens. If cream and butter boost the calories too high, we opt for yogurt or less butter. But resturants are in the business of making food taste good. It’s not in their self-interest unless their customers demand it.
Haven’t other studies shown that reductions in caloric intake at one meal, whether due to labeling, portion size, etc., are made up at other meals and total daily caloric intake is rigid.
Total daily caloric intake being rigid is fine so long as it’s done in such a way as to boost metabolism.
Nanny state.
le sigh.
So now we should put all of that info over everything? I think not.
For sanity reasons, I’d prefer them NOT to put the caloric values on everything.
It was a “web based survey.” With simulated fast food menus.
In short, a bunch of unknown people ordering virtual calories from made up menus.
When I’m indifferent between two different menu items, I will often make the decision between the two based on “perceived health”.
I wouldn’t mind having this information on a menu. However, I see no reason for the government to require it.
This makes complete sense. The more knowledge people have on a certain topic, the more likely they are to make “wiser” decisions. However, not all restaurants show accurate numbers on their menus. I have been in plenty of them where they play with the information they show to their costumers and trick them into buying something thinking they are ordering something else.
I’m interested to see the number of people who have complete access to all this information, and still choose the least healthy meals.