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NPR blog: Restaurants shave calories off new menu items

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A sign displaying calorie counts is seen in a Subway restaurant in New York City in 2008. A yet-to-be-finalized federal rule requiring big chain restaurants to post calorie counts has likely led eateries to tweak their menus.

Last month we reported that big food retailers have eliminated billions of calories from the packaged foods they sell in supermarkets.

Now comes a study that finds large U.S. restaurant chains are doing some calorie cutting as well. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health documented a decline of about 60 calories, on average, in new menu items in 2013, compared with calories in new menu items in 2012. This represents about a 12 percent drop in calories.

Read more at The Salt: NPR’s food blog.