A new study found that restaurant calorie counts may vary.
An examination of the calorie content of food from about 40 fast-food and sit-down restaurants in 3 states finds that overall the stated calories of items on the menus of the restaurants are accurate, although there was substantial inaccuracy for some individual foods, with understated calorie figures for those items with lower calorie contents, according to a study in the July 20 issue of JAMA.
"The prevalence of obesity in the United States increased from 14 percent of the population in 1976 to 34 percent in 2008, during which time both self-reported and per-capita energy intake increased. Reducing energy intake by self-monitoring or selecting foods with lower energy contents is widely recommended for the prevention and treatment of obesity. However, the feasibility of reducing energy intake using these approaches depends in part on the availability of accurate information on the energy contents of different foods," according to background information in the article. "Foods purchased in restaurants provide approximately 35 percent of the daily energy intake in U.S. individuals but the accuracy of the energy contents listed for these foods is unknown."
Study on Restaurant Calories and Energy Contents
Lorien E. Urban, Ph.D., of Tufts University, Boston, and colleagues conducted a study to evaluate the overall accuracy of restaurant-stated energy contents and examine factors associated with the accuracy of stated energy contents of individual food items. Food from 42 restaurants, comprising 269 total food items and 242 unique foods, were ordered as a take-out meal and subsequently analyzed at a laboratory for caloric content. The restaurants and foods were randomly selected from quick-serve and sit-down restaurants in Massachusetts, Arkansas, and Indiana between January and June 2010.
Of the 269 food items, 40 percent had measured energy contents at least 10 kcal (calories)/portion higher than the stated energy contents and 52 percent had measured energy contents at least 10 kcal/portion lower than the stated energy contents. Nineteen percent of foods contained greater than 100 kcal/portion more than the stated energy contents. The researchers found significantly greater variability in the discrepancy between the stated and measured energy contents in all foods from sit-down restaurants compared with all foods from quick-serve restaurants.
The authors write, "In addition, foods with lower stated energy contents contained higher measured energy contents than stated, while foods with higher stated energy contents contained lower measured energy contents."
The authors suggest that a reason why individual foods have inaccurate stated energy contents (especially in sit-down restaurants) may be poor quality control of portion size.
Read: Food Addiction Like Drug Addiction?
Restaurant Calories and Obesity
"Although our study showed that stated energy contents in restaurants are relatively accurate on average, thus supporting greater availability of this information, projected benefits for preventing weight gain and facilitating weight loss are likely to be reduced if restaurant foods with lower stated energy contents provide more energy content than stated" the authors say. "Additional portion control in restaurants has the potential to facilitate individual efforts to reduce energy intake and to help resolve the national obesity epidemic."
Read: The Standard American Diet
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Reference: JAMA. Published online July 2011.
“Accuracy of Stated Energy Contents of Restaurant Foods,” Lorien E. Urban, PhD; Megan A. McCrory, PhD; Gerard E. Dallal, PhD; Sai Krupa Das, PhD; Edward Saltzman, MD; Judith L. Weber, PhD, RD; Susan B. Roberts, PhD
Author Affiliations: Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts (Drs Urban, Dallal, Das, Saltzman, and Roberts); Department of Foods and Nutrition, Department of Psychological Sciences and the Ingestive Behavior Research Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana (Dr McCrory); and Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock (Dr Weber).
Source: The Journal of the American Medical Association
