Calorie count on menus

S

swatiraohnlu

Swati Rao
Many national, regional, and city governments in developed countries around the world have been experimenting with requiring restaurants and food chains to list on their menus the calories of the foods they offer. These efforts have been designed to respond to major obesity, health, and dietary problems in countries around the world. Are calorie counts effective at influencing consumer behavior? Do consumers, and particularly restaurant-goers care?
 
Calories on menus empower consumers to make healthier choices The Department of Health argued in October of 2007, in regards to the New York city legislation mandating calorie counts on menus: "calorie information provided at the time of food selection would enable New Yorkers to make more informed, healthier choices." Calorie counts make it easier to judge calories in foods "Should Restaurants Be Required To Post Calorie Information?". Dr. Dolgoff's Weigh "As a pediatrician and child obesity specialist, I spend my days talking to overweight families. I am constantly surprised at the lack of knowledge about calories and nutrition. While it may seem obvious that certain foods have a lot of calories, most people are unaware of exactly how many calories they contain." In general, even with people who are not obese, it can be difficult to accurately judge the calories in any given restaurant entre, with people consistently expressing surprise at the actual calorie content of certain meals. Calorie counts helps avoid any ambiguity, clarifying exactly what consumers are getting. This is as it should be.
 
"Social engineering" with calorie counts is justified in health crisis. It is justified for the government discourage certain behavior when that behavior (overeating), has created a health crisis that both damages overweight individuals, and places a burden on other citizens (in the form of higher health care costs). Fear of government should not obstruct calorie counts on menus "all reform has to start somewhere. It's counterproductive to avoid action because of fears that it will lead to scarier actions later; the time to stop is when regulations become overly burdensome on businesses and overly restrictive of consumer choice. The calorie-count rule is neither, and it would also avert a patchwork of labeling laws in states such as California and New York by setting a national standard for all chains. As a bonus, it may be the only piece of legislation in 2009 with a strong chance to make Americans look better in their swimsuits."
 
Calorie counts rightly value health over blissful ignorance There is no such thing as "blissful ignorance". While it is interesting to argue that customers sometimes would prefer to live in "blissful ignorance" of the calories in the foods they are eating, this argument is much weaker than the general principle that more information is always better, especially when it comes to health. The "bliss" a few customers might feel when ignoring their health at a restaurant is far outweighed by the pain and suffering caused by obesity, heart-disease, and the strains on the health-care system that result. Only small minority prefers "blissful ignorance" to calories on menus. It is probably true that some people would prefer not to know how many calories are in the food that they are consuming. But, this kind of blissful-ignorance attitude is the minority, and the majority - who care about their health - should not be denied this important information in order to prop up a mis-guided, ignorant, and harmful attitude.
 
Customers are indifferent to calorie counts on menus In other words, consumers aren't really demanding "a choice", and calorie counts on menus. Ken Poulin, a consumer in New York said to USA Today in response to a 2008 New York law that required certain large restaurant chains in the city to list calories on their menus: "People are going to eat what they want; it doesn't matter what the menus say. People need to eat more vegetables and have common sense."
 
Calorie counts on menus would be very costly for restaurants. Testing and counting the calories in all the different items on a restaurant menu is very expensive. In addition, printing out new menus with calorie counts would have a cost, and constantly ensuring the restaurants are meeting their calorie counts and state or federal regulations, will present new and unmeasurable staffing burdens and costs. Calorie counts on menus will turn-off customers. Many restaurants will lose customers because they are forced to post calorie information on their menus, which is not particularly attractive or appetizing to customers. In general, by making dining out into an issue of health, instead of pleasure, the restaurant industry at large will lose customers.
 
As people are infecting with more diet related issues.......It will help them to understand what they are taking
 
More than half of teenagers said they did in fact notice the calorie postings, and 9% said the labeling prompted them to buy lower-calorie foods. But a check of the teens' register receipts showed that the number of calories they actually bought were the same before and after restaurants started posting calories. On average, teens bought 725 calories per meal.

Researchers also studied the behavior of parents buying food for small children. More than one-quarter of parents said that labeling influenced their menu choices, but their receipts showed they purchased the same number calories, about 600, both before and after calories were posted on menus.
 
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