![Does displaying calories in restaurants encourage eating less? Does displaying calories in restaurants encourage eating less?](https://img.passeportsante.net/1000x526/2014-03-24/i38346-afficher-les-calories-au-restaurant-incite-t-il-a-manger-moins.jpg)
OTTAWA, October 27, 2010 – Is Displaying the Calorie Count of Food Offered on Restaurant Menus Encouraging Consumers to Eat Less?
Very little, according to the results presented by Phillip Leslie, professor of economics at Stanford University.
In fact, displaying the calorie content of restaurant meals would allow customers to eat 30 fewer calories per day, or 6% fewer calories. Such a decrease is equivalent to a weight loss of 1 kg (2 pounds) per year, per person.
This is what Phillip Leslie revealed to more than 200 specialists and stakeholders in public health, gathered in Ottawa for a symposium on political and regulatory interventions in nutrition.1.
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Phillip leslie
To reach this conclusion, he compiled nearly 110 million transactions made at branches of the Starbucks chain in New York as well as in Boston and Philadelphia.
It first collected data from Starbucks branches in New York City 3 months before – as well as 11 months after – a city bylaw came into effect requiring restaurants to display the number of calories in each. food and drink.
He then compared this data with transactions made at branches in Boston and Philadelphia, where such regulations do not exist.
Result: the display of calories does not change the choice of drinks – mainly coffee -, but it is associated with a choice of dishes containing 6% fewer calories.
This equates to a decrease of 30 calories consumed each day. Taking into account that an adult needs, on average, 2,000 calories per day to meet his needs – and considering that 25% of calories come from meals eaten in restaurants -, we obtain a reduction of 6%.
“This is a disappointing result which shows that one cannot hope that the display of calories will have a major effect in reducing the burden of obesity,” said Leslie.
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Bill Jeffrey
But that’s not the opinion of Bill Jeffrey, who heads the Canadian section of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).
“On the contrary, this is good news since a single passive intervention – calorie display – can lead to significant weight loss, rather than weight gain, as seen in the general population,” he stressed. Without the display, there would have been weight gain rather than decrease. “
For Bill Jeffrey, this result is all the more interesting since it has been observed within the Starbucks chain, that customers first frequent for cafes.
“We can think that the display in restaurants of fast food would have an even more positive effect, ”he says.
Display: not necessary, according to restaurateurs
However, Canadian restaurateurs say they are against the single display of calories, claiming that this is incomplete information.
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Ron reaman
“We need more comprehensive nutritional information,” said Ron Reaman of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association. For example, the number of calories does not allow a hypertensive customer to know how much salt is in a dish. “
However, Mr. Reaman acknowledged that only restaurants belonging to a large chain are able to provide complete nutritional information, since their dishes are standardized.
This implies that in Canada, nearly 2 out of 3 restaurants could not provide such information: only 36% of Canadian restaurants are part of a restaurant chain.
But for Bill Jeffrey, calorie displays in restaurants are necessary information “that allows consumers to make informed choices: currently, when nutritional information is available, it is printed in such a small format that few people can. read it, ”he laments.
In this regard, Phillip Leslie believes that it is by producing healthier foods that the industry can really take action, rather than just posting nutrition information.
“Through innovation, we will create tasty and healthy dishes that will counterbalance the omnipresence of dishes with too many calories,” he concludes. As we did with ice cream, for example: 10 or 15 years ago, low fat ice cream did not exist. Now they occupy half of the shelves at the grocery store. “
Colloquium of the Center for Science in the Public Interest Read also Salt in processed foods: experts urge Ottawa to act |
Martin LaSalle – PasseportSanté.net
1. The Championing Public Health Nutrition 2010 symposium was held in Ottawa by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a non-profit organization that publishes the journal. Nutrition Action. For more information: www.cspinet.org [consulté le 26 octobre 2010].