Slow day

[trinityvixen]

I should be studying for my test tomorrow what with all this free time at work. Instead, I read things. In less trigger-warning-ly dangerous news than my last post, there's been another study showing the ineffectiveness of calorie counts at restaurants. It was already suggested by a previous study that the posted calorie counts don't change adult eating habits, and now they've shown it doesn't change children's eating habits either. Hardly surprising. You'd need to start educating kids younger and more thoroughly about calorie counts before you could expect them to apply knowledge to facts and make a dietary change. Odds are also good that kids whose parents don't care about calories won't have any chance to learn by example and abstain from a 1000-calorie kids meal. (Especially not if there are toys they want in them.)

I still am a tad baffled by this result. I find that the calorie counts work on me quite well. Alas, in New York, I tend not to frequent places that would have a chain large enough to meet the minimum that requires posting. So I'm sure I'm eating a shit-ton more calories than I need when I order Indian food or pick up a chicken gyro at the carts here. At least I've managed to cut back on quantity such that I'm only eating half the Indian I order and the last time I tried to get a whole gyro platter, I didn't eat for the better part of eighteen hours afterwards. But, yeah, if I go into a McDonald's ::shudder:: I will probably get the smaller fry because, hey 200 less calories and I still get enough fries. I've even switched over my meal of choice from one chicken type to another at Wendy's because of that.

I suppose I could see how someone looking at the 600+ calories that a medium french fries would set you back would then go, "What the hell, it's only 200 more for a large." I happen not to work that way. Point of fact, though I'm lazier than ever about cooking, (I swear I will work on that), I've actually been turned off entirely by fast food. Still love their french fries on occasion, but I've finally hit that part of adulthood I never thought I'd reach where I look at my options--McDonald's or starving--and, in all seriousness, opt for starving. If you'd have told me that as a chicken nugget fiend of a kid, I might have hit you.

Comments

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I also have found the calorie counts helpful. They don't usually keep me from getting a class of item once I've decided to do so. (If I walk into Starbucks having decided to get a pastry, I will get a pastry.) But I do take them into account when choosing which item I'll get. (I will get a mini donut instead of pumpkin bread that turns out to be three times the calories of the donut.)

But I also don't actually eat at places big enough to post calories very often. I do, however, really miss it when I'm at, say, a Starbucks in Jersey City.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I do appreciate it. I think it's much more present in my mind without necessarily making me feel guilty. As you say, if I'm in Wendy's, I'm not going to leave. But neither am I going to try ordering something else to spare the calories and have it be just as bad (like some of their salads). The informed choice is always better made, I feel.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

That's the one that pisses me off, that I really like the calories counts for--when you don't order the thing you want because you're trying to be "good", and it turns out the "good" choice is actually worse than the thing you wanted. I've definitely stared at menus, trying to choose a healthy option, and had no idea which thing was actually healthy.