Low Calorie Labeling On Menus Cause People to Eliminate Healthy Food

The secret of "low-calorie" labelling seen on restaurant menu is finally revealed. Researchers claim that the low-calorie labelling on menus cause people to dismiss healthy food from their preference list.

The study documented in the Journal of Consume Research found that menus that separately list the low calorie dishes, dissuade people from choosing those items. 

"Because most restaurant menus are quite complex-offering numerous dishes composed of multiple ingredients-diners try to simplify their decision. People have come to expect low-calorie food to taste bad or not fill them up," authors Jeffrey R. Parker (Georgia State University) and Donald R. Lehmann (Columbia University), said in a news statement. "We propose that by calorie organizing a menu, restaurants make it easier for people to use the general 'low-calorie' label to dismiss all low-calorie options early in the decision process."

To prove the hypothesis, the researchers conducted four online studies. As a part of the study, participants were asked to order food for a menu that was similar to what they find in famous restaurants.

The first group of the participants went through traditional menus that had the available dishes in food-type category and carried no information on calorie. The second group of participants was also shown the same menu but each dish on the menu carried information of calories. The third group was given the calorie-based menu in which the dishes carrying low calories were grouped together placed under a separate section called 'low-calorie section'.

The researchers saw that the participants who had access to traditional menu with no details on calorie and those than accessed menu with low calorie food grouped together ordered the same amount of calories. But those who order from calorie-labeled menus ordered meals that had less calories overall.

The authors conclude saying, "When a menu is calorie posted but not calorie organized, it is less likely that the caloric-content of the dishes will be used as an initial filter for eliminating large portions of the menu. For the consumer, this means you are more likely to consider ordering a low-calorie dish and also more likely to eat it too."