If you guessed “Tuna Melt”—you’re smarter than approximately 96% of consumers. The rest either chose incorrectly or admitted that they didn’t know. Most thought that the Steakhouse Beef Dip or Baja Chicken with Bacon had the most calories. The Steakhouse Beef Dip with cheese and dressing actually has the fewest calories, with 730, whereas the Tuna Melt weighs in at a hefty 1,420.
“Almost everyone failed this quiz,” said Lucy Culp, government affairs director the American Heart Association in WA. “Restaurants don’t make customers guess when it comes to prices; they show them on the menu. There’s no reason to keep vital nutrition information from consumers, and many good reasons to provide it.”
Another question that gave consumers trouble:
Which item at McDonald’s has the most calories?
- A Big Mac
- Two sausage McGriddles
- A large chocolate shake
- Four regular hamburgers
- Aren’t you sure?
The correct answer is the large chocolate shake at 1,160 calories. Did you guess correctly? Most consumers didn’t. Only 10% correctly identified the chocolate shake as the item with the most calories.
You can check out the poll results and the report from the CSPI by clicking here.
(Photo:Morton Fox)
More From Consumerist
-
1-In-5 Americans Dreads Buying Gifts For The Holidays
-
Study: There Are Plenty Of People Who Would Take Out A Walmart Or PayPal Mortgage
-
Clean Bathrooms Are “Most Important Marketing Job” For Restaurants, Says Expert
-
If You Want To Drink On Election Day In S. Carolina Or Kentucky, You’d Better Buy Booze Today
-
Mmm, Food Court Fish Eggs: California Mall Introduces Caviar Vending Machine
@mewyn dyner: What kind of herbage? I never know what to put in tuna other than relish.
Sugar, bread, fat -> calories. How much you feel you’ve eaten has nothing to do with it.
So, of course, I got both right. Think of it this way: how are four buns and maybe a teaspoon of grease going to pump you up on calories? OTOH, the shake has tons of sugar, and a decent bit of milk fat, I would hope. It also covets Carl’s pool, but that’s neither here nor there.
i guessed tuna melt because of all the mayo AND cheese. a small coke has fewer calories than the same amount of 2% milk. wild.
@ucdcsteve: aww man, why did you have to bring up the dirty meat water? I’ve seen that and it does concern me but the place has the “A” sign from the LA County Department of Health. That sign means it’s all good right? And seriously a “B” couldn’t be all that bad? That means “good” right? It’s 12:45 here and I’m thinking about lunch. oh well.
@Sian: Baja Chicken weighs in at only 770 w/ cheese and dressing… 690 if you get it w/o cheese which is disgusting on that thing anyway.
Looked it up because thats actually a good sandwhich, 770 is completely fine for me because i need 3000 calories a day just to maintain my weight (6’3″ 210) and i lift weights and mountain bike alot. Yeah theres some bad stuff in there but I only get it once every few weeks.
A “Regular Hamburger” sounds good right about now! The simplicity of those burgers are just so alluring, and they’re so cheap.
@Trai_Dep: I got the answer wrong, yet I don’t feel deceived. The real deception would come if they did put the calories on the menu.
Peaking is easy, but in poor taste.
Um, I’m sorry but I think you meant “peeking”.
Yes, it is in bad taste and can get one arrested in the right (wrong?) circumstances.
As for “peaking”, we all peak eventually and it’s nothing to be ashamed about.
On friday I bought two medium pizzas and 2 boxes of breadsticks from Pizza hut for $20.
I ate it all within 24 hours, and wow was it delicious.
@Bladefist: deceit is probably too strong a word, and I’ll take it back. However, many of the offerings are counterintuitive. Labeling is the only way for consumers to be armed enough to make the rational choice for them.
Peaking might be rude, but is PEEKing ok? Or outsourcing to Peking?
well, got that one wrong, better go shoot myself three times now.
I had had the idea to start a chain restaurant which listed the entire nutritional contents (with calories, carbs, fats, protein, salt, etc) for each item on the menu. I still think with a great menu and lots of variety including both vege and non vege offerings it would be a big hit in SoCal. But given that 90% of new restaurants are belly up by the end of the first year, I decided instead to become a doctor. Now I’m sad.
Consumers are good at estimating deliciousness, not calories. Doesn’t that count for something?
Why the hell do I have to read this *after* Quiznos closes?
Damn you…damn you all!
Mmmmmmm….tuna melt.
@ChuckECheese:
To eat at a place that thought to put singing, dancing, Spanish rats in front of their sub ads, was a good idea, how formidable do you believe these people’s “pallets of deduction” to be?
My daughter needs a high calorie diet… first thing the Dr. recommends? Tuna fish sandwiches! milkshakes! avacados!
Man. This brings back memories.
I used to work at a Subway in college. There was a small, well-equipped gym next door.
These two hot chicks would come in after their workouts and get a foot-long tuna sub (each) with all the veggies and cheese. But what got me, was they always asked for extra mayo. And not just a little- but a lot.
I could not stop thinking, “Don’t you know how we make this stuff?” and “We use the extra-heavy Portuguese mayo to boot, and this ‘tuna’ is mostly mayo…”
But then again- they were hot, so whatever they were doing worked out for them.
I am very good at estimating calories, (and got both questions right) but that’s because I’m obsessive. And Costco STILL got me with their slice of cheese pizza – I thought it’d be a better choice than a churro (fried carbs + sugar) or a smoothie (mostly sugar), but it turns out that sucker has 800 calories. I mean, it’s a big slice, but not THAT big – do they inject it with lard or something? You can get a churro AND a berry smoothie for fewer calories. You could eat a Big Mac and a half for that many calories. It’s insane.
Which I guess is kind of the point. Nutritional content can be deceiving. I don’t think restaurants should have it printed on their menus, because that’s just tacky, but it should be available if a customer asks.
@NeroDiavolo: Wow I forgot all about those rat commercials. Are they rats or bad taxidermy ferrets? And let’s not forget the wolf-lactation.