Calorie Reveal In Your Face: How Does it Affect Your Order?

Pictured: fast food stand on Blackpool promenade. Question: Will it be harder to eat fast food when confronted with the caloric amount of it?

After a busy morning at a home improvement store, my husband and I dashed into Panera Bread for lunch. Looking up at their menu, I decided on the Napa Chicken Salad sandwich.

“You want a half (sandwich)?” my husband asked. He was staring up at the board. There were calories listed for each sandwich and salad, and thankfully there were half sandwiches available.

The calorie total for my half chicken salad sandwich was in the upper 400s. I also got a green salad with chicken tossed in balsamic vinaigrette. The green salad without chicken was 80 calories.

Confronted with the stark reality of how many calories are in each sandwich or salad, I wonder what the impact will be on the customers.

Panera Bread is complying with the new regulations which are part of the newly signed Health Care Reform bill, now law. Though the regulations affecting restaurant chains apparently don’t kick in until 2011, some restaurants like Panera are already complying with the rule that dictates restaurants with a certain number of chains must post calorie count on their menu items.

I’d say that most people will go for a lower calorie item than they originally intended when they see the high number of calories associated with some of the menu offerings. What do you think?

Photo by Christian Cable from Lancaster, courtesy Wikimedia