Do calorie counts on menus really change how people eat?

Some people might prefer not to know exactly how many calories are in a Starbucks Frappucino or Bloomin’ Onion from Outback Steakhouse. Nevertheless, the Food and Drug Administration has required that the information be displayed on chain restaurant menus in the U.S. since 2018, and a similar rule was introduced in the U.K. in 2022.

But do calorie counts really change the way people eat? Evidence suggests they have a small but tangible impact, according to a new systematic review from the Cochrane Collaboration.

The review found that calorie labels prompt people to select foods with an average 1.8% fewer calories than they would without calorie labels — the difference between a 600-calorie meal and a 589-calorie one.

That’s not much. But small daily changes “can have meaningful effects if sustained long-term,” Gareth Hollands, a co-author of the review and researcher at University College London, said in a press briefing. He cited a U.K. government report that found 90% of people between ages 20 and 40 in England gain up to 9 kilograms (roughly 20 pounds) over the course of a decade. 

Cutting 24 calories a day would prevent that increase, Hollands said. “Many of us are able to benefit from some help to maintain weight by cutting small numbers of extra daily calories that explain a lot of population weight gain.”

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