The Hudson Institute started a campaign for low calorie foods. This was branded better-for-you beverages and foods. The campaign was aimed at showing that the benefits in form of sales, shareholder values, and reputation from the campaign will eventually grow from the implementation and popularization of this program. This program proved that it has the potential to save millions of people every year. According to the Lempert Report, such an analysis already has an influence on the light menu trend that has over the years been very popular in most of the fast food and casual vendor stores in the world.
The Hudson Institute established that most restaurants in the market achieve maximum profits and improved performance with the sale of low calorie foods and beverages. The group observed the servings and data from a number of restaurants such as the NPD group and the sales trend written in the Nation’s Restaurant News from about 21 national chains. The study was done between 2006 and 2011. The findings showed that quick serve and the sit down restaurant increases the sales of the stores and customer traffic.
Making a comparison between 2006 and 2011 the following findings are evident:
The general food servings traffic from restaurants increased by about 1.8% after the five years. The chains that increased their servings of low calorie foods increased their servings by about 10.9%. Food chains that increased their calorie food servings saw a decrease of their servings by about 14.7%. This clearly shows a relationship between the level of calorie servings and the number of customers visiting the fast food joints. These joints should therefore be encouraged to increase their low calorie food servings to increase their profitability.
Energy density is the number of calories (energy) in a given amount (volume) of food. For weight control, your best bets are healthy foods that provide low energy with high volume. By choosing foods that are low in calories, but high in volume, you can eat more and feel fuller on fewer calories. Certain foods, such as fruits and vegetables, tend to be low in energy density — they’re low-calorie foods.