Now, tool to identify healthy food

If you think that your favourite eating joint is making you fat, do not worry. New results identify an effective tool for measuring how well a restaurant is at helping diners make healthy choices.

The restaurant scorecard for healthier dining, developed by Cornell Food and Brand Lab researchers can be used by diners and restaurant managers to identify changes that can be made to promote healthy eating behaviours without undermining revenue.

"Restaurant managers want people to leave feeling good, these scorecards can help identify potential improvements that will make diners leave feeling both satisfied and healthy," said lead researcher Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University.

Using results of field studies and principles of behavioural science, the researchers identified 100 actions that restaurants could take to make it easier for diners to eat healthier.

The researchers then created a 100 point and a 10 point Restaurant scorecard for healthy dining.

These results will be presented at the 2015 Society of Nutrition Education and Behaviour conference.

To examine if the scorecards could be used to rate whether a restaurant is making its diners fat or slim by design, they recruited eight diners.

The researchers found that the restaurant scorecards can be a reliable way to rate how effective a restaurant is at helping you dine healthfully.