But this doesn’t mean that calorie counting forces restaurants to reduce the calories they offer. It could just as easily mean that restaurants with lower-calorie offerings are more eager to let you know.

A better understanding of how initiatives could change behavior might come from using the methods of scientists, like prospective trials. Another study did that when it examined how Walmart’s healthier food initiative changed how people bought food. One of Walmart’s methods was adding a front-of-package labeling system indicating items that met certain nutritional criteria. The retailer also offered price reductions on some healthier items.

Over the years of the study, customers bought significantly fewer calories. But most of the changes happened before the start of the program. The conclusions of the researchers were that retailer-based initiatives may not be enough to change behavior.

Another study from this month was also on point. In New York City, menu label mandates began in 2008. Back then, people reported that they saw and used calorie counts more often than people did in restaurants without labels. However, every year after that, fewer and fewer people reported noticing them or considering them. Over time, customers started to ignore the labels. More significantly, at no time did the labels lead to a reduction in the calories of what diners ordered. Even if people noticed the calorie counts, they did not change their behavior.

The problem here is that while all of these studies are being packaged as new, we’ve known about much of this for years. The New York City program was studied after it first went into effect. A 2012 publication in The American Journal of Public Health noted that menu labeling seemed to lead to an increase in calorie intake because people bought more higher-calorie entrees, not fewer. No one should be surprised that three years later the program still doesn’t work. A different menu labeling program in Seattle, whose impact was investigated in a study published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2011, led to “increased nutrition information awareness, but no decrease in calories bought by parents or children.”