More on Calorie Cluelessness

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Re: The calorie labeling program in New York City and its apparent lack of success, I’m reminded, by Jacob Sullum, of just how much the promoters promoted it:

[I]t seems clear that menu mandate boosters have exaggerated this policy’s power to make people thinner. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene predicted the menu regulations would stop 150,000 people from becoming obese and prevent 30,000 cases of diabetes over five years. The California Center for Public Health Advocacy claimed menu labeling would result in a weight loss of nearly three pounds a year per fast food consumer. Such results are hard to achieve if people do not actually eat less.

Again, the picture remains incomplete. But with these kinds of claims to live up to, which is more likely: admitting they were wrong; or fudging the official numbers.

Mmmm… fudge.