Calorie law may not encourage healthiness

Walk into any New York City cafe or fast-food joint, and you'll notice every menu item is labeled with a calorie count. But how effective has this information been in making customers order healthier options?

Not at all, according to a group of NYU School of Medicine professors who teamed up with researchers from Yale University to study the impact of calorie postings on consumers' ordering habits and their calorie consumption. In fact, the researchers found that many customers, particularly low-income customers, actually ordered higher-calorie options after the postings were introduced on menu boards in fast-food joints.

Calorie posting first became required in New York City in July 2008. Since then, California and Seattle have followed the city's lead with the same requirement.

Brian Elbel, the leader of the study and an assistant professor of medicineand health policy at the NYU School of Medicine, and the other researchers gathered data from about 1,100 restaurant receipts. Customers were each paid $2 to give up their receipts.

The researchers found that customers' orders in New York City had an average of 846 calories after the labeling law went into effect. Before the law, the average was 825 calories.

Although the study targeted low-income groups, Elbel emphasized that the calorie labels are focused on all groups. Low-income groups were studied first because they are at a higher risk of facing health problems in comparison to other demographics.

Elbel said that although the city has taken some effective measures in improving the health of its overall population, more could be done to address issues such as the difference in pricing of unhealthy and healthy foods, and the difficulty of acquiring more fresh foods, especially in schools.

Some NYU students said calorie posting has no impact on their ordering habits.

"I don't really think about calories," Tisch junior Devin Sullivan said.

But LSP freshman Aliza Friedman said calorie posting has affected her decision when ordering at food joints, particularly at Starbucks.

"I stopped ordering some of the drinks because of their calorie content," Friedman said. "Many individual drinks contain more calories than a regular meal. Now I just order iced coffee."