New Cochrane Review evidence suggests that nutritional labelling on menus in restaurants and cafes may reduce our calorie intake

New evidence published in the Cochrane Library shows that adding calorie labels to menus and next to food in restaurants, coffee shops, and cafeterias could reduce the calories that people consume, although the quality of evidence is low.Eating too many calories contributes to people becoming overweight and increases the risks of heart disease, diabetes, and many cancers, which are among the leading causes of poor health and premature death.Several studies have looked at whether putting nutritional labels on food and non-alcoholic drinks might have an impact on their purchasing or consumption, but their findings have been mixed. Now, a team of Cochrane researchers has brought together the results of studies evaluating the effects of nutritional labels on purchasing and consumption in a systematic review.The team reviewed the evidence to establish whether, and by how much, nutritional labels on food or non-alcoholic drinks affect the amount of food or drink people choose, buy, eat, or drink. They considered studies in which the labels had to include information on the nutritional or calorie content of the food or drink. They excluded those including only logos (e.g. ticks or stars) or interpretative colours (e.g. ‘traffic light’ labelling) to indicate healthier and unhealthier foods. In total, the researchers included evidence from 28 studies, of which 11 assessed the impact of nutritional labelling on purchasing and 17 assessed the impact of labelling on consumption.The t...

Source: Cochrane News and Events - February 27, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: Muriah Umoquit Source Type: news