Overweight and obese Americans are more likely to use restaurant menu labels when making food choices, a recent study says.
The study, published online Jan. 2 in Preventing Chronic Disease, used Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey data from Hawaii, Minnesota and Wisconsin where residents were asked if they used menu labeling at restaurants and how often they consumed soda and sweetened fruit drinks. Such labels detail nutrition information, such as the number of calories in a meal.
“Menu labeling was put in place in part to combat the obesity epidemic,” said Sumihiro Suzuki, PhD, a study author and assistant professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of North Texas School of Public Health. “People thought by putting on menu labels (the public) would make more educated, healthier choices. We really wanted to know if that was the case.”
Fifty-two percent of the nearly 24,000 participants said they used menu labeling. Label readers were more likely to be women, at 61 percent, the study said. Menu label use was common among Americans who met national guidelines for exercise and eating fruits and vegetables. But it was overweight and obese study participants, when compared with underweight and normal weight participants, who were found to use menu labeling more, the study said.
“We probably thought those people who were underweight and normal weight would be using it more than overweight and obese people,” Suzuki told The Nation’s Health. “What we found initially was that it was sort of a reverse. We tend to kind of blanket all overweight and obese people together, but even within that group, it looks like they’re trying to live a healthier lifestyle.”
Suzuki said that while he sees a relationship between menu label use and healthier behaviors, it does not mean there is a cause and effect relationship.
“A little bit more research has to be done on whether usage of menu labeling has anything to do with your behaviors as far as eating or exercising,” Suzuki said. “These (survey) questions are very broad in that they just ask, ‘Do you use menu labeling?’ Usage can mean a lot of things for different people. Some people may be very vigilant. Others may say, ‘Oh around 500 calories? I can do that.’”
The three states were chosen because they were the only ones where residents answered questions about menu labeling in CDC’s 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, Suzuki said. Researchers are currently analyzing 2012 data where 18 states replied to those questions, he said.
For more information, visit www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/13_0231.htm.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
