Menu Calorie Counts May Not Improve Dining Habits, Studies Suggest.

reports that “most consumers don’t seem to care much about calorie counts on menu boards,” according to a pair of new studies published in Health Affairs. The first study found that New York City’s requirement “has done little so far to change consumers’ eating habits,” as, initially, “just 12% of consumers ordered items with fewer calories, and that dropped to 9% when the researchers surveyed customers again in 2013 and 2014.” Furthermore, “only about half of consumers even noticed the calorie counts when they went up on menu boards in 2008.” reports that the second study found “restaurants that moved to calorie posting early reduced the calorie content of standard items on their menus by an average of roughly 120 calories.” The researchers concluded that “the greatest impact on mandatory menu labeling on population health may come from restaurants’ changing the calories of their menu items instead of consumers’ changing their behavior.” http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/11/02/effects-of-labeling-calories-on-menus/75046400/