Eating by the Numbers

Three researchers present actual research about the issue of food labeling as an anti-obesity measure in a New York Times opinion piece. Julie S. Downs, assistant research professor, George Loewenstein, professor, and graduate student Jessica Wisdom from the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, recommend that lawmakers "consider a wide range of methods to tip people toward healthier food choices, including efforts to make healthy foods relatively cheaper or more convenient. To pin our hopes on calorie posting is bad lawmaking based on poor reading of science." Their research, supported by the United States Department of Agriculture and published in American Economic Review, examined purchases by 1,479 McDonald’s customers in New York City in 2007 and 2008, both before and after menu labeling went into effect. They found that simple labeling did not help diners use menu labels, and had no impact on calorie consumption.The authors also offer a very important caveat. "As anyone who has taken a course in statistics knows, correlation does not necessarily imply causation. Just because those who claimed to have used the information consumed relatively fewer calories doesn’t mean that the information was what caused them to do so."