Obesity is a serious health concern in Canada. Thirty-seven percent of the population are overweight and approximately 25% are obese. Increased energy intake from eating outside the home has contributed to the rise in obesity. Approximately one quarter of all Canadians consume food in a quick-service restaurant on a given day. Although not all food consumed outside the home is of poor nutritional quality, restaurants generally offer foods that have larger portions, and are higher in calories and fat. Menu labelling has the potential to promote healthier eating by informing consumers about the calorie content of meals. Currently, there is little or no research on possible unintended effects of displaying calorie information at restaurants and quick-service establishments. In particular, it is unclear how such information would affect individuals with clinical eating disorders, or those with eating disturbances. In the current study, 325 female undergraduate students over the age of 16 took part in a 10-minute paper-based survey after meal consumption in a cafeteria on the University of Waterloo campus. The study employed a pre-post design, with data collection occurring in paired and unpaired samples one month before calorie information was added to menu boards, and one week after. In the 299 participants with usable data the prevalence of eating disturbances (EAT-26 > 20) was 10.4%. Calorie consumption decreased from baseline (mean=678.2 kcal) to follow-up (mean=602.3 kcal; p=0.049). There were no statistically significant changes in any of the other outcomes from baseline to follow-up, including body image satisfaction, anxiety, mood, and frequency of engaging in unhealthy behaviours. Additionally, there were no interactions between eating disturbance level and time, which suggests that calorie labels did not differentially affect those in this high-risk population. Overall, no adverse outcomes related to eating disturbances were associated with the implementation of calorie labels in this at-risk population. The results have potential implications for menu labelling regulations.

Obesity is a serious health concern in Canada. Thirty-seven percent of the population are overweight and approximately 25% are obese. Increased energy intake from eating outside the home has contributed to the rise in obesity. Approximately one quarter of all Canadians consume food in a quick-service restaurant on a given day. Although not all food consumed outside the home is of poor nutritional quality, restaurants generally offer foods that have larger portions, and are higher in calories and fat. Menu labelling has the potential to promote healthier eating by informing consumers about the calorie content of meals. Currently, there is little or no research on possible unintended effects of displaying calorie information at restaurants and quick-service establishments. In particular, it is unclear how such information would affect individuals with clinical eating disorders, or those with eating disturbances. In the current study, 325 female undergraduate students over the age of 16 took part in a 10-minute paper-based survey after meal consumption in a cafeteria on the University of Waterloo campus. The study employed a pre-post design, with data collection occurring in paired and unpaired samples one month before calorie information was added to menu boards, and one week after. In the 299 participants with usable data the prevalence of eating disturbances (EAT-26 > 20) was 10.4%. Calorie consumption decreased from baseline (mean=678.2 kcal) to follow-up (mean=602.3 kcal; p=0.049). There were no statistically significant changes in any of the other outcomes from baseline to follow-up, including body image satisfaction, anxiety, mood, and frequency of engaging in unhealthy behaviours. Additionally, there were no interactions between eating disturbance level and time, which suggests that calorie labels did not differentially affect those in this high-risk population. Overall, no adverse outcomes related to eating disturbances were associated with the implementation of calorie labels in this at-risk population. The results have potential implications for menu labelling regulations.

Descriptive menu labels are omnipresent elements in restaurant menus. Food service operations often use sensory, nostalgic, and brand descriptions to signal a customer's food-specific perceptions. Extant research has shown links between descriptive menu labels and food taste/enjoyment perceptions. To extend and expand the extant literature, this dissertation proposes that descriptive menu labels can be viewed as an anthropomorphizing factor, leading to different magnitudes of consumption-related attitudes and behavioral intentions in a restaurant. Drawing from metaphoric transfer theory and social impression models, the present research study suggests that descriptive labels in a restaurant transmit metaphors that influence consumers' impending warmth and competence perceptions of a restaurant. This dissertation also investigates the potential inversed magnitudes of anticipated satisfaction and willingness-to-pay-more driven by warmth/competence. In this empirical study, descriptive menu labels were experimentally manipulated. Consumers' warmth-related and competence-related service impressions, anticipated satisfaction, and willingness-to-pay-more more were measured. The empirical investigation comprised two pretests and one main study. The hypotheses were tested in two menu contexts (an entrée menu vs. a dessert menu). Overall, the results suggest that customers view a restaurant with sensory- and nostalgia-triggering descriptions as offering warmer impending services (i.e., with kindness, generosity, and understanding) compared to a restaurant with general descriptions. On the other hand, customers view a restaurant that utilizes brand-related descriptions as providing more competent and skilled impending services than a restaurant that utilizes general descriptions. In addition, the findings suggest that consumers' warmth impressions serve a more important role in their anticipated satisfaction than do their competence impressions; however, regarding willingness-to-pay-more, competence impressions factor more significantly than do warmth impressions. The replications of the results across the two menu contexts showed the robustness of the findings; however, there was a different pattern observed for the effects of sensory labels on consumers' warmth-related impressions in the dessert menu selection context. This dissertation contributes to emerging streams of menu labeling and service management literature. The findings presented in this dissertation have both theoretical and managerial implications for the food service industry. / Ph. D.