According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) for July 11, approximately 57% of adults use 'menu labeling' - calorie information for each dish provided by restaurants - to reduce caloric intake and make healthier decisions.
Perhaps more adults should consider utilizing menu labeling for themselves and their children. The CDC reports that 34.9% of the US adult population is obese while 17% of children and adolescents between the ages of 2 and 19 are as well. Not only does this cost the health care system billions of unnecessary dollars, it also puts these people at risk for other chronic diseases, such as diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.
As a result of the country's health, the federal government passed a law in 2010 that requires restaurants with 20 or more establishments (mostly fast food and chain restaurants) to provide calorie information on menus and menu boards, but the regulations for the law have not yet been finalized. However, some states and local jurisdictions have introduced their own menu labeling policies, which was how the researchers were able to obtain menu labeling use among adults in 17 states. In using the 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, the responses of 118,013 adults were analyzed.
The survey asked the respondents, "The next question is about eating out at fast food and chain restaurants. When calorie information is available in the restaurant, how often does this information help you decide what to order?" Although over 10,000 people said they "never noticed or never looked for calorie information, 57.3% reported using menu labeling either always, most of the time, half of the time, or sometimes. The rates were highest among respondents from New York (61.3%) and lowest among those in Montana (48.7%).
"The reasons for differences in ML use are unclear," the researchers noted in the MMWR report. "Factors that affect ML use, such as requirements that food service establishments display menu item calorie counts, as in New York City and several New York counties (e.g., Suffolk and Albany), and promotional activities in restaurants might have led to the variations across states."
The researchers acknowledge that a more comprehensive study that doesn't feature self-reported data would provide a more overarching picture in regards to menu labeling use and one's willingness to consider caloric intake. Additionally, 6.2% of the respondents were excluded due to missing data for the menu labeling question, which could have affected the results.
Nonetheless, the outcome of the study provided some hopeful details. Over 57% of people reported using menu labeling as a way of deciding what to order (most likely implying the user is attempting to reduce caloric intake or make a healthier dietary choice), and that number will probably increase once the regulations regarding the federal law for menu labeling are finalized.
You can read more about the CDC MMWR here.
