In an article from the New York Times called "The Calories are Listed, but Teenagers Don't Care", writer Anemona Hartcollis tells us about a recent study that was conducted to see how listed calories in fast food restaurants affect the food choices of teenagers.
According to the research conducted at New York University, calorie posting in restaurants actually has little influence over teenagers. They found that about 50% of the teenagers took notice of the calories posted, that 25% considered themselves weight conscious, and that 9% said the posted amounts helped them make decisions on their food. However, after examining their receipts, the researchers found that teenagers were actually buying about the same amount of calories as before, an average of 725 calories.
In a similar study conducted in 2009, researchers who asked adults if calorie postings had any affect over their food choices (28% said that they did) found that the adults were in fact ordering slightly more calories than they previously were. Their buying habits in terms of calories for their children were also the same as before, about 600 calories.
In the current study, of the teenagers who were asked, more than 70% admitted that the taste of the food was the most important deciding factor on their buying choices. These teenagers also tended to underestimate the number of calories they were consuming by about 466 calories.
The study included teenagers who ate at fast food restaurants an average of six days a week, shopped at Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC in low-income neighborhoods of New York City. They studied them both before and after the restaurants were required to list their calorie contents.
Exercise: Because of the massive snow storm we had today (which I am very upset about by the way), I did not make it into the gym. This week, I promise to be better about my working out! I was bad last week… and I feel bad about it. So this week I will certainly get myself back on track.
Eat: Today I made a new recipe (in addition to my usual recipe) of granola bars. While I would do some things to improve them next time, they were not too bad. My first batch came out a little crumbly, so I decided to use it as homemade granola. It's pretty good. Here's the recipe link: Fruit & Honey Oatmeal Bars. If I were to do it again, I would put just dried apples in as my fruit. I think it would taste fabulous with the cinnamon and would be even better as a granola to go with some yogurt!
Relax: Today I got some awesome reading time in! While I was reading my book for Wednesday, I still was able to just relax and read it. I loved that I was able to almost finish the book today and get really far ahead in getting my week's topics planned out for my blog. I suggest for you to do the same. Either spend some time reading, or work on getting ahead on something you need to do this week; whether its work, homework, reading, cooking, etc.
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