Calorie Counts on Menus a Failure – Here’s Why
Seven years after calorie counts were mandated in fast-food restaurants in New York City, people do not eat fewer calories at all. If anything the trend has been for people to eat more calories on average. And every year people notice the calorie counts less – they seem to be fading into the background noise.
A new study shows it’s simply a failure:
- Politico: Calorie counts on menus aren’t working, new research shows
- Health Affairs: Five Years Later: Awareness Of New York City’s Calorie Labels Declined, With No Changes In Calories Purchased
Next year calorie labelling in fast-food restaurants will be mandatory in the entire US. Time will tell if they will be less useless outside of New York City, but all indications are that they will be a giant waste of time and space.
A hundred years ago almost nobody knew about calories and almost everyone was slim. Now everybody knows about calories and most of the US population is overweight. It’s not a problem of calorie counting. It’s a problem of food quality.
The problem is that the quality of our food determines how many calories we want to eat – and how many calories we spend. Worrying about calories first is putting the cart before the horse.
That’s why calorie counts aren’t working.
More
Why “Everything in Moderation” is Terrible Diet Advice
The Death of the Low-Fat Diet (Again)
Weight Loss Struggles of Women Over 50
“Coca-Cola Caught Funding Scientists Who Deflect Blame for Obesity Away From Sugary Drinks”
http://www.nutritionj.com/content/6/1/44
(the pdf has also a long reference list! ;) )
I trust that everyone recognizes that this is exactly what The Anointed do when the Grand Plan is failing - do the same thing, but harder - or just yell louder. Tom Naughton captured it entertainingly in this speech:
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2013/12/17/speech-diet-health-...
People who didn't pay attention to nutrition data before are not going to pay attention now. If they once did (or start to), they discover that the official advice does nothing for them, aggravates one or more ailments, or is simply impossible to comply with long term. They'll at some point start ignoring it again. Unfortunately, they'll also tune out information that matters.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aib-agricultural-information-bul...
https://fnic.nal.usda.gov/surveys-reports-and-research/us-food-policy...
The USDA had a basic responsibility for food and how animals put on weight for market. This later turned into food and people weight.
Technically food is chemically transformed from one form(intake) to another (0utputs like stools, urine, CO2 and H20, .... new or repaired tissues and / or retained fat). Many of the changes involve oxidation, and the lay expression "burned" applies.
A calorie is a measure of energy much like a foot-pound is also a measure of energy. A calorie isn't like a chunk of charcoal or cup of gasoline that can be burnt. It is just a measure of energy.
Nutritional science can be pretty sloppy in the hands of non-science trained journalists and authors.
I have counted calories for two years and have lost 34 kilos. If I did cook something I for example researched on this website http://www.calories.info/food/vegetables , how many calories for example my vegetables contain.
It really works this way! You just have to stay tuned continuously.