Adapted from BMJ 7 Dec 2024
Research published in Nature Human Behaviour, has found that labelling restaurant and takeaway food to show calorific content does not seem to change people’s eating behaviour.
Mandatory calorie labelling came in for certain types of restaurants in England in 2022. The idea was that people would look at the calories they intended to eat and choose more wisely and healthily.
Surveys on 6,578 customer before and after the change, indicated that there was no significant fall in self reported calories purchased or consumed.
My comment: An epic fail then! For myself, I tend to eat a double cheeseburger quarter pounder at Burger King, if I am stuck without an eating option. I put the bottom burger on the top of the cheese, mayo, lettuce and tomato, and eat it with my hands like a very messy, greasy, meat sandwich. I discard the bun as I don’t tolerate wheat. This comes in at around 1,000 kilocalories, but doesn’t stop me. It does fill me up for many hours. I have not changed my order since the rule came out. Has it changed your order pattern at restaurants?
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