Here’s a variation on a theme we’ve long known. Calorie counts on fast food menu items shortchange us, with a twist. In a study recently published in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers found that calories stated on fast food menu items tended to be inaccurate, averaging 18% MORE CALORIES per item than listed in the menu. Example: Wendy’s grilled chicken wrap listed 260 calories, but was found to have 344 (a 32% overage).

It’s not surprising that calorie counts are inaccurate. A precise measurement in a lab is very expensive, so most companies turn to software programs that calculate calories based on the product’s ingredients. But the software is unable to take into account the various preparation methods and variances in quantities of each ingredient (half a tablespoon of mayo added or subtracted is 65 calories!).

But to err consistently higher than what’s stated on the menu, and by a whopping 18 percent, seems a bit fishy don’t you think? Granted, a few items did err for the better, but they were a minority.

It’s important to mention that the research was focused on reduced energy meals, the items people most interested in weight loss tend to look at.

If you’re scoffing and thinking that people wanting to lose weight shouldn’t be in a fast food joint to begin with, we’ve got more bad news. The researchers also checked 10 popular frozen meals and found an average 8% discrepancy, again skewing to a lower calorie count than was actually present. Lean Cuisine’s shrimp and angel-hair pasta claims 220 calories, but clocked in at 319 (45% more!).

Let’s have some back-of-an-envelope math fun, shall we?

If a supposedly 2000 calories-a-day diet is actually 18% higher in calories, that means 2360 calories or an extra 360 calories a day consumed. Since every 3500 calories are equivalent a pound to our body weight, approximately every ten days we’d gain one pound of body weight. In one month, we’d be up 3 lbs. In one year, a whopping 36 pounds!

Fooducate readers know not to trust health claims, and know that front of pack nutrition labels are more about marketing than anything else. Should we now assume that the calorie count on the nutrition facts panel is wrong too?

The FDA gives manufacturers 20% leeway when labeling their products’ nutritional values. That doesn’t mean manufacturers automatically skim 20% off  the real number to seem attractive to shoppers. But just like your cellphone / internet / [insert here]  providers tend to err NOT in your favor, so do food manufacturers. And most of them know that the FDA has bigger issues to handle and thus won’t come running after them.

What to do at the supermarket:
One way to reduce calorie miscounts is to buy more products that don’t have calories listed on them – fresh fruits and vegetables, for example. Another is to automatically add a “TAX” of 10-20% when you read the calorie label, just as you would when calculating a sales tax.

You should also note that a far greater problem is serving size misrepresentation. Many products specify a toddler size portion, when in fact people consume twice the amount. That raises the calorie count by 100%, not a measly 18%. So make sure you read the calorie count together with the serving size to get a better picture of what you’ll be ingesting.

But enough math for today.

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