Low-Calorie Meals Making Money For Restaurants

Editor's Choice
Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Also Included In: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Article Date: 08 Feb 2013 - 0:00 PST


A recent study carried out at the Hudson Institute found that restaurant businesses do significantly better financially if they cut the number of calories per meal and contribute towards preventing obesity.

More and more restaurants across the USA are serving low-calorie meals in an effort to cut spending and make more of a profit.

Obesity is becoming a serious public health problem in the U.S, in fact, recently researchers from Weill-Cornell Medical College estimated that close to 39% of all Americans who are classed as overweight, may in fact be obese. This is extremely worrying, considering that obesity can greatly increase one's risk of developing a series of different diseases and conditions, such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes type 2.

The report titled "Lower-Calorie Foods It's Just Good Business" identified the financial impact of serving low calorie options in 21 of the country's most popular restaurant chains, such as Burger King, Chili's, and McDonald's.

Over the past few years, the restaurants that added more low-calorie meals to their menu saw much better growth and a significantly higher number of customers compared to those that didn't have many low-calorie options.

Between 2006 and 2011, low-calorie foods and drinks were the growth engine for 17 of the restaurants looked at. Not only this, but restaurants that had low-calorie options also had far better rates of return-on-investment.

The restaurants that introduced more low-calorie options had a 5.5 percent increase in the same store sales against a 5.5 percent decline among the restaurants that experienced a decline. They also experienced a 10.9 percent growth in customer traffic versus a 14.7 percent decline in restaurants that did not introduce any low-calorie options.

People are beginning to look more for options that aren't going to make them put on weight.

Lead author of the study, Hand Cardello, said:

"Consumers are hungry for restaurant meals that won't expand their waist lines, and the chains that recognize this are doing better than those that don't."

James S. Marks, MD, senior vice president and director of the Health Group at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation added:

"This report shows that companies can serve both their interest in healthy profits and their customers' interest in healthier eating. We need more companies to make this shift, and now they have even more reasons to do so."

The finding emphasizes how serving low-calorie foods and drinks is actually a good way to improve restaurant sales. Hopefully, given these promising results, restaurants will now have even more incentive to provide more low-calorie meals in their menus.


 Written by Joseph Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

• Additional
• References
• Citations