ReachMD

Calorie Counters

I'm Dr. Brian McDonough for ReachMD on what your patients are talking about. Do the calorie postings at McDonalds and other fast food restaurants make you choose salad over burgers? Well, according to a New York University study, these calorie postings in New York and in Philadelphia do not encourage people to eat fewer calories. Researchers studied more than two thousand customers of McDonalds and Burger King Restaurants. And they chose Philadelphia and New York before and after a mandatory calorie label law went in to affect in February 2010.

They looked at receipts and they asked how often they visited fast food restaurants in the last week, whether they noticed calorie postings and what they did with the info. According to the report only 38 percent of customers even noticed the calorie labels; only 10 percent purchased fewer calories as a result. And that's what your patients are talking about. I'm Dr. Brian McDonough on ReachMD.