Just a few weeks ago, independent researchers reported that New York City’s ground-breaking calorie labeling law had had absolutely no effect on the caloric content of meals bought at chain restaurants in poor neighborhoods. Last week, city health officials delivered a more upbeat assessment, saying New Yorkers ordered fewer calories at four chains — Au Bon Pain, KFC, McDonald’s and Starbucks — after the law went into effect last year.
The changes reported by the city health department’s preliminary data were modest, indicating little change either way in the number of calories bought at 8 of 13 chains surveyed, and a significant increase in calories ordered at Subway, which researchers attributed to a continuing $5 promotional special on footlong sandwiches that has tripled demand for them.
Although the findings of the two reports appear to contradict one another, researchers said differences in focus and size might explain the discrepancies.
The first study, published in the journal Health Affairs last month, assessed the effect of calorie labeling only in low-income, minority neighborhoods, while the larger health department study assessed the effect citywide.
“We looked at a population that’s much more price sensitive, so calorie information could have taken a backseat to pricing in our group,” said Brian Elbel, author of the earlier study and an assistant professor of medicine and health policy at New York University School of Medicine.
Since obesity rates tend to be higher in these neighborhoods, Dr. Elbel added, “this is where we would have liked to see an impact most.”
The new city health department data are from a comparison of 10,965 purchases made at 13 chain restaurants in 275 locations in spring 2007, before the law went into effect, with 12,153 purchases made this past spring. Dr. Elbel’s study examined only 1,156 purchases.
New York was the first city in the United States to require calorie content to be posted prominently next to prices in chain restaurants. Altogether, 16 states and localities have passed similar laws.
While the health department study found little change in the number of calories bought at most chain restaurants, researchers said the number of calories ordered over all at coffee shops declined by almost 10 percent, to an average of 237 in 2009 from an average of 260 in 2007, even though many people said they did not really notice or use the information.
In fact, only about 56 percent of chain restaurant customers said they noticed the posted calorie information, and even fewer, about 15 percent, said they took the calorie information into account when making their choices. Those 15 percent bought 106 fewer calories, on average, than consumers who said they had not seen or used the information, the study found.
“Dietary changes come slowly,” said Dr. Lynn Silver, an assistant commissioner in the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene who presented the data from the study at a meeting of the Obesity Society in Washington. “We were not expecting to see miracles.”
