Research
Energy balance
Items with low stated energy (<600 kcal) contained more energy than stated compared to those with high energy (≥600 kcal) (+5% vs. −8%, P=0.05).
Low-calorie menu items may be misleadingly high in actual energy content.
StrongSupportsmedium confidence
In foods obtained from sit‐down restaurants, items with low stated energy (<600 kcal) contained more energy than stated compared to those with high energy (≥600 kcal) (+5% vs. −8%, P=0.05).
Why this rating
Based on statistical analysis of the measured data.
Source
Accuracy of stated energy contents of chain restaurant foods in a multi‐site study
Lorien E. Urban et al. · The FASEB Journal · 2011
DOI 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.lb269
cross-sectional · n=269
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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- The stated energy values of restaurant foods are frequently inaccurate, with measured energy on average not different from stated values corrected for metabolizable energy factors (+7±43%, P=0.57).Strong
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