Baylen Linnekin: Why Government Menu Mandates Are Not Curing Obesity

The good news is that data show obesity levels
among K-12 students in Philadelphia fell by 4.7 percent from the
2006-2007 school year to the 2009-2010 school year. The caveat
there—and it’s a big one—is that the data doesn’t track individual
students.

This clear uncertainty, though, hasn’t stopped the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation from suggesting that policy changes it favors
are behind the change, according to Baylen Linnekin.

Cheering on mandatory calorie labeling is a constant RWJF
refrain. In a 2013 report listing four key strategies for reducing
obesity, for example, RWJF also credited four
states for “requiring chain restaurants to post nutrition
information.”

But, as Linnekin writes, laws requiring the posting of
calorie counts don’t work. In fact, research has shown they can
push people to ingest more calories, rather than
fewer.

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