SAN DIEGO, CA. – When you go into a fast food restaurant, would you want to know what’s in the food you’re ordering? Do you think you’d make healthier choices, for example, if you knew how many calories were in that cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate shake? With recently proposed legislation – the Menu Education and Labeling Act or MEAL Act for short– lawmakers are hoping that providing consumers with nutrition information may help them eat healthier. The ultimate goal is to curb the obesity epidemic that is sweeping the U.S. If implemented, the legislation will require fast food restaurants to post calorie information right on their menu boards so that people can see exactly what they’re getting when they place their order.
But will it work? Some critics have questioned whether posting calories will make any difference, suggesting that individuals who eat fast food probably don’t care about counting calories. Previous food labeling studies have been mixed—some suggest it could help, but others suggest it may not make any difference, or in some cases, it could even backfire.
A study by Dr. Mary Gerend, Assistant Professor at the Florida State University College of Medicine, provides new clues as to whether posting calorie information on fast food menus might actually translate into healthier eating. College students in the study were randomly assigned to receive a fast food menu (modeled closely after a McDonald’s menu) that either did or did not indicate how many calories were in each item. Their job was to indicate exactly what foods they would be likely to order – from burgers and chicken nuggets to salads and soft drinks—across a range of situations.
Dr. Gerend looked at how many calories students ordered if their menus did or did not include calorie counts. She found that displaying calories on the menu led women – but not men – to order fewer calories per meal. When they knew the calorie content of their orders, women ordered meals that had, on average, 146 fewer calories. If a woman were to eat fast food once a week, this would translate into a reduction of about 2.2 pounds per year. And the healthier orders came with an added bonus—they were cheaper, too, by about 88 cents per meal.
Interestingly, men in the study did not respond to calorie information in the same way women did. Men ordered about the same number of calories regardless of whether they knew the calorie count. Dr. Gerend pointed out that previous studies suggest that the thought of counting calories might threaten men’s sense of masculinity.
It’s important to keep in mind that this study only looked at what people said they’d order. Additional studies are needed to see whether displaying nutrition information in restaurants affects actual food intake or, more importantly, whether it would help reduce obesity. Still, the findings do suggest that knowing how many calories are in that cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate shake could benefit American’s waistlines, and their wallets.
The study is being presented at the March 26-29 Annual Meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego, CA, on Thursday March 27 from 4:45 to 5:00 pm in Randle B.
The Society of Behavioral Medicine is a multidisciplinary organization of clinicians, educators and scientists dedicated to promoting the study of the interactions of behavior with biology and the environment and the application of that knowledge to improve the health and well being of individuals, families, communities and populations. www.sbm.org