Restaurants Are Working to Voluntarily Cut Calories From Menu Items

Recent findings published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine show that many large chain restaurants are cutting calories from their menus. More specifically, they have introduced newer food and beverage options, on average, that contain 60 fewer calories than their traditional menu selection.

"If the average number of calories consumed at each visit was reduced by approximately 60 calories-the average decline we observed in newly introduced menus in our study-the impact on obesity could be significant," said lead study author Sara N. Bleich, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School, in a news release.

For the study, researchers used data from MenuStat and examined menu options in 66 of the 100 largest U.S. restaurant chains for 2012 and 2013. They found that lower-calorie items fell into the categories of main course, beverages and children's menus.

"You can't prohibit people from eating fast food, but offering consumers lower calorie options at chain restaurants may help reduce caloric intake without asking the individual to change their behavior - a very difficult thing to do," Bleich concluded. 

"Given that the federal menu-labeling provisions outlined in the 2010 Affordable Care Act are not yet in effect, this voluntary action by large chain restaurants to offer lower calorie menu options may indicate a trend toward increased transparency of nutritional information, which could have a significant impact on obesity and the public's health."