Food policy writer Baylen Linnekin is disappointed to discover that not even the regulation-averse leadership of the Trump administration is enough to kill off expensive, impractical, and ineffective restaurant menu-labeling rules included in the Affordable Care Act:
So what’s wrong with mandatory menu labeling? For one, as Politico reported this week in a piece on the FDA’s menu labeling plans, there’s some debate over its effectiveness.
“[E]vidence on whether it works is mixed,” Politico notes. “Some studies have found that it helps certain individuals, especially women, eat slightly fewer calories, but others have found no effect.”
I wish Politico had also reported perhaps the most significant evidence around menu labeling: Its very basis is a ruse. Research has shown mandatory menu labeling doesn’t help most people choose to eat fewer calories, and may in fact push people to eat more calories.
“Who cares about calories?” asked a 2013 NBC News headline. “Restaurant menu labels don’t work, study shows.”
“[A]t no time did the labels lead to a reduction in the calories of what diners ordered,” the New York Times reported in 2015. “Even if people noticed the calorie counts, they did not change their behavior.”
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