Health, Diet, Nutritional Information, and Consumer Choice

This paper presents the results of experiments that aim to understand the effect of calorie information on consumer choices. Since individuals tend to overestimate the calorie differential between foods, providing calorie information by itself leads to switching from lower calorie foods, like chicken to tastier but higher calorie foods like beef. Providing information about the amount of exercise required to eliminate the impact of additional calories shifts consumption from meats to salads.