Menu math: Are calorie counts worth the trouble?
The calorie counts that began appearing on restaurant menus some years back may be doing more good than anyone expected, said Dennis Thompson in The Buffalo News. A new study from a team at Harvard indicates that menu items introduced at franchise restaurants since calorie labeling went nationwide in 2018 contain 25 percent fewer calories than dishes introduced in previous years. By and large, chain restaurants did nothing to cut calories on existing menu items. But the apparent desire to offer customers lighter fare, coupled with previous studies indicating that Americans have cut their calorie consumption by 4 to 6 percent since 2018, suggests that the numbers now crowding menus could be encouraging people to make healthier choices.
Don’t be so sure, said Jaya Saxena in Eater.com. A 2015 study conducted in New York City, which began requiring calorie labeling in 2008, indicates that diners stop paying attention to calorie counts and revert to old eating patterns. Personally, “I hate calorie counts”: Seeing that the coconut shrimp at Margaritaville contains 1,370 calories doesn’t tell anyone much about nutritional value, but “it does lead to potential stress, especially for people with a history of disordered eating.” In a healthier society, we’d focus less on pure calorie intake and recognize that what’s more important is the quality of each meal. Americans are already consuming fewer calories; that’s been the trend since 2003, long before menus started shaming us. There’s much work to do to ensure that we all eat well. But calorie counts are a bad start. “Whatever health looks like, that sort of worry is not it.”