White House data drones strike again

Vox - The new [food calorie] regulations will hit millions of establishments that serve food and not just traditional restaurants. Everyone from coffee shops to movie theaters to amusement parks will have to comply with the new regulations...

Public health research gives reason to be skeptical that calorie labels will significantly change peoples' eating habits. Not all consumers notice the calorie information. And, among those who do, the body of research slightly leans against these labels changing behaviors.

One 2008 study, conducted by Brian Elbel, Rogan, Kersh, Victoria Brescoll and L. Beth Dixon, looked at New York City's newly-passed calorie labeling requirement. It compared the eating habits of people there with those of residents of nearby Newark, which did not have similar nutritional postings.

It found that New York City residents certainly noticed the new calorie labels. Some said they would buy fewer calories, too. But at the end of the day, they didn't follow through. New York City residents studied, who came from low-income demographics, purchased the same amount of calories before and after the labels came online....

A study, conducted by two University of Minnesota researchers, found that when consumers were presented with calorie information in a survey setting, they would reduce their intended food order's calories by about 3 percent. But when the same researchers tested out the calorie labels in a real-world fast food environment, nothing changed. Intentions, in other words, didn't translate into behavior change."Overall, our results show a considerable gap between actual choices and stated preferences with respect to fast food choices," they write...