The Impact of Nutritional Information on Restaurant Consumer Behavior

描述(由申请人提供)：营养信息对餐馆消费者行为的影响摘要在整个20世纪80年代和90年代，美国成年人的肥胖率每十年增加约50%。鉴于与肥胖相关的2型糖尿病、冠心病和癌症的风险大大增加，不可否认，有必要采取有效的公共卫生干预措施，以降低美国的肥胖率。此外，由于美国人现在平均每年在餐厅用餐218次，而且外出摄入脂肪的年均百分比从20世纪70年代中期的18%上升到90年代中期的38%，餐馆消费行为可能是开始寻找解决方案的有用之处。特别是，更多的户外饮食选择可以帮助减少卡路里的过度消耗和肥胖的风险。通过加州大学圣巴巴拉分校经济系(UCSB)、营养软件公司Nucate Corporation和Silvergreens LLC之间独特的合作伙伴关系，我们有机会在Silvergreens餐厅进行实地试验。本实验的主要目的是考察在餐厅环境中向顾客传播营养信息的影响，以及它对消费者购买行为的影响。特别是，我们建议调查积极和消极的营养和激励信息以及分发给消费者的营养成分信息在很长一段时间内对他们的交易收据的影响。包装食品的营养标签一直是与肥胖作斗争的重要因素。然而，美国人在餐馆消费的食物份额越来越大，目前关于食物的营养信息还没有广泛获得。这项探索性的实地研究将询问，一种在餐馆提供营养信息的新方法--营养收据--是否可能帮助顾客做出更健康的饮食选择。如果这项技术奏效，它可能会对美国人的健康、预期寿命和医疗成本产生巨大而有益的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Impact of Nutritional Information on Restaurant Consumer Behavior Abstract Obesity among adults in the United States increased by approximately 50 percent per decade throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Given the substantially elevated risk of type-2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and cancer associated with obesity there is an undeniable need for effective public health interventions aimed at reducing the rate of obesity in the United States. Further, since the average American now eats 218 restaurant meals per year, and since the average annual percentage of fat intake consumed away from home rose from 18 percent in the mid-1970s to 38 percent in the mid-1990s, restaurant consumption behavior maybe a useful place to begin looking for solutions. In particular, more informed dietary choices away-from- home could help reduce calorie over-consumption and the risk of obesity. Through a unique partnership between the Department of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), Nutricate Corporation, a nutritional software company and Silvergreens LLC., we have the opportunity to conduct a field experiment at Silvergreens restaurant. The primary objective of this experiment is to examine the impact of disseminating nutritional information to customers in a restaurant environment, and its impact on consumer purchasing behavior. In particular, we propose to investigate the impact of positive and negative nutritional and motivational messages in conjunction with nutritional content information distributed to consumers on their transaction receipts over an extended period of time Nutritional labeling of packaged foods has been an important element in the battle against obesity. However, Americans consume an ever greater share of their meals at restaurants, where nutritional information on meals is currently not widely available. This exploratory field study will ask whether a new method of providing nutritional information in restaurants - the Nutricate receipt - might help customers make healthier meal choices. If this technology works, it could have a large and beneficial effect on Americans' health, life expectancy, and health care costs.