Can seeing the calories in different foods change your choices? One study says it might, at least for parents making food choices for their kids. A study published in Pediatrics recruited 99 parents who took their toddlers to fast food restaurants on a regular basis. In the study, parents were given a sample McDonald's menu and asked to choose items for themselves and their kids. Half of the menus included calorie information for each food while the other menus didn't. The results? The parents who had the calorie information chose an average of 102 fewer calories than the other parents.
That's a good thing, considering that 100 extra calories a day could lead to a 10-lb weight gain in a year. Another thing that caught my eye about the study was this fact: "There was no difference in calories between the two groups for items the parents would have chosen for themselves." Wonder why the parents made better choices for their kids, but not themselves?
We talked about the issue of posting nutritional information in restaurants in a previous post and some commenters disagreed with the idea of posting calorie information. As one reader said, "It is not necesssary to see the nutritional information to really judge a menu. If you order a burger and fries, you know what you're getting." This study, as small as it is, does show that seeing the numbers really can make a difference.
What do you think? Would you make different choices for your kids if the calories were listed next to the food choices? Would you make different choices for yourself?
