Did you see that burger? The one squeezed between a doughnut? The one that contained your daily calorie allowance? Hungry Horse, the pub-restaurant chain have recently introduced their doughnut burger. Two inch-thick burgers with bacon and cheese sandwiched in between two sugary doughnuts. You have to see it to believe it. With the total calories adding up to nearly 2,000 calories, the pub chain has come under heavy criticism by public health professionals. It looks like a heart attack on a plate. And just when you thought more restaurants and takeaways were moving towards the introduction of healthy options, this doughnut burger pops up.
Mel Wakeman, a senior lecturer in Applied Psychology at Birmingham City University poses an important question. If made aware of how much exercise is needed to burn off the calories consumed, would the average person still consume this burger? The answer is... some would and some wouldn't. Our research back in 2011 led us to design a segmentation of the general population. In short, we are likely to fit into one of five segments. Two of the segments (which we have called "food hedonists" and the "young and guilt free") couldn't give a frying fish finger about healthy options when eating out. Looking at the demographics, most fall into the low income population groups. Importantly, most do not have a high level of educational attainment.
We have been following the idea of calories on menus and displaying nutritional information for years - not just on supermarket and pre-packaged goods but on all food, including loose food in restaurants. We have even set up a low cost food analysis service to help businesses find out what is in their food so they can display information and even reformulate it. We firmly sit in the camp that believes that information is power. We have looked at this very closely and through our research we have found that if more people have access to information (and crucially they can understand it) then people can make informed decisions about what they eat. It might not stop people from eating something high in calories or fat like that 2000 calorie doughnut burger, but they may compensate by cutting out a meal.
An American study carried out in 2013 found that calorie labelling was highly effective among those that were the least health conscious. The study also found that information on calories affected participants’ main meal option rather than any side dishes, drinks or desserts. However, the study continues to argue that the results indicated that calorie labelling did not have a strong impact on individuals that were already aware and were knowledgeable of calories. To combat this, the researchers proposed that instead of providing numerical labelling of calories, symbols would have a greater effect on how individuals select their meals. For example, instead of numerical information, menu designers, restaurant owners and manufacturers could have a running man next to each item with the number of calories of the dish next to him and the total time to run it off.
A study carried out by Amir Heiman and Oded Lowengart at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ben-Gurion University of Negev found that there is a difference between males and females with respect to the effects of providing nutritional information of food items. The research found that calorie information had an effect on perceptions and choice processes of females, where as with males, calorie information only changed the perceptions of food and not their choice processes. This would support our research in this field which found that predominately women 'grappled with guilt' after consuming a takeaway.
But it’s not just food; the debate of putting calorie information on alcoholic beverages was lately re-fueled by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). The society claims that many individuals aren’t aware of the number of calories in each drink – more than 80% of people surveyed didn’t know or guessed the incorrect number of calories in a large glass of wine, and 60% didn’t know how many calories there were in a pint of lager. In our latest campaign "Think Safe, Drink Safe" we are testing messages that include promotion of calories rather than units - something we have wanted to test for a number of years. As well as calorie messaging we are testing a number of different public messages. In just 10 days we have got 500 town residents to like the page - a fantastic cohort in which to test public health information with the general public.
Some preliminary work we have done suggests that calorie information on alcoholic drinks will affect drinking levels in women in particular. However, we are looking at other effects. Calls are being made to reject plans to include calorie information on alcoholic beverages as this might lead to individuals replacing one of their meals for a couple of glasses of wine or a few pints - which could make the situation worse (an unintended negative effect).
If you are interested in nutritional information, working with restaurants and the commercial sector or trialling some pilot interventions please get in touch with our team.