Reality Dysfunction At Subway
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Do fast food restaurants mislead their customers or is it that too many people simply don’t understand calories?
Harvard Goes Burger
Let’s start this one off with a paper Dr. J over at CalorieLab unearthed: Researchers from Harvard recently went to 89 fast food restaurants in the New England area and asked visitors to estimate the number of calories they had just eaten. This they then compared to the actual number.
How can I put this delicately? Many people were off. Sometimes really, really far off.
The mean number of calories in meals was 836, but the average guess put it around 661. That’s a difference of 175 kcal. To give this some context, let us say that an extra 175 kcal per day for a month means 1 1/2 pounds more fat will take up lodgings on your hips, tummy and buttocks.
Yet these actually were the good guys, who got at least somewhat close to the real number. Others – a whopping 25% of all participants – were off as much as 500 kcal. These people had eaten the equivalent of a cheeseburger, small fries and a medium Coke, but in their estimates the fries and Coke had never existed.
The Worst Was At Subway
The worst results were found at Subway, the chain that consequently maintained a “we are the healthier choice” image over the years, despite their offerings sometimes at least being on par with KFC, McDonald’s and the rest – one of their 6 inch tuna subs has 530 kcal, making it the equal of a McDonald’s BigMac.
But the Subway marketing efforts work: diners there on average underestimated their meals by 349 kcal, more than at any other fast food restaurant.
The closest approximation between estimates and real calorie content was found at McDonald’s and Wendy’s, which either means that these two chains are more honest (perhaps in the case of the former due to much public scrutiny) or have the more intelligent customers. Take your pick.
Who Is To Blame?
You tell me who is to blame for this: fast food restaurants engineering a reality dysfunction among their guests or people who don’t understand calories and weight maintenance?
Picture courtesy of Vincent Desjardins.
14 Comments
Well both are guilty. Before I had my smart phone and my calorie counting app on my phone I believed what I was told in the advertisements. I figured they can’t tell me its healthy if its not. Didn’t Jared lose hundreds of pounds eating this food? Now I check my phone and I am constantly shocked at food that I know tastes like cardboard but is supposed to be good for me and find It is worse than a bag of chips.
I read this article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/egg-white-breakfast-sandwiches_n_3612751.html?utm_hp_ref=healthy-living and was shocked at the way retailers lie to us about what they are serving.
Very interesting! On the upside, I think that indeed smartphone nutrition apps made life easier. I’ll have to give them a closer look!
All the more reason to take childhood nutritional education more seriously – https://evilcyber.com/nutrition/how-to-get-kids-to-eat-their-veggies/.
Yep, exactly!
I can honestly say that I *know* I am TERRIBLE about estimating what is “healthier” and what isn’t. I’ve come to realize that I need to research the nutritional facts about everything I am putting in my body before I do it, or I am sunk. (and nothing will turn you off of fast food quicker than seeing the nutritional info of it!)
Probably! 🙂
This study has been done a few times now. The Cornell study speculates that it’s association. Like, McDonald’s is supposed to be incredibly unhealthy, and energy dense, while subway is the “really healthy low fat and calorie alternative”. That associate spills over to the menu options that are the opposite of the associations too. That’d be why the footlong meatball marinara with cheese can be seen as healthy + low fat when it’s probably 50/50 ground beef and sugar water sauce.
Very good point! The truly healthy choices may have a halo effect on the bad ones! What works for celebrities probably also works for subs 🙂
Thanks, EC!!
I limit myself to only a salad at Subway. It’s quite inexpensive and if I pressure the servers, they can be generous 🙂
Hahaha! “Come on, another gherkin won’t hurt!” 😀
I think it is both as well. The general population is vastly uneducated about good nutrition. Although I put more blame on the corporation in this instance since they have the money and power behind them. Also it is not in their best interests to be loud about how unhealthy their meals are (even if they have to state it somewhere).
Here in Germany McD prints the nutrition info on the underside of the paper things on the trays. But in order to look at it, you of course would have to move everything off the tray 😉
It’s been that way in the US for a few years. The irony of printing the nutrition facts on the underside of the tray liner is that they can legitimitely say they ‘provide the nutrition info to all customers’ without really risking any different choices.
To be fair, I have noticed many resteraunts have calorie numbers on their menus now, though that probably varies a lot by State and City.
Free nutrition apps (LoseIt, MyFitnessPal, etc.) are very useful. I’ve often found myself looking up calories of a couple options while standing in line, and using that to make up my mind.
And, as we just saw, a lot of good even that does us…
I now also know what the paper thingies are called! 🙂