Large chain restaurants appear to be voluntarily lowering calories in their menu items, a new study shows. New research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests that large chain restaurants, which primarily offer food that is high in calories, fat and sodium on their menus, introduced newer food and drink options that contained an average of 60 fewer calories than traditional menu selections in 2012 and 2013. Study results appear in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Researchers say that this could prompt a trend in calorie reduction in anticipation of expected new federal government rules requiring large chain restaurants – including most fast-food establishments – to include calorie counts on their menus. According to researchers, the sight of menu items with 12 percent fewer calories could have a large impact on the nation’s obesity epidemic.

Studies have shown that on an average day, 33 percent of young children, 41 percent of adolescents and 36 percent of adults eat at fast food restaurants, with respective average caloric intakes of 191, 404 and 315.

The study’s lead author, Sara N. Bleich, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School, said in a statement, “If the average number of calories consumed at each visit was reduced by approximately 60 calories — the average decline we observed in newly introduced menus in our study — the impact on obesity could be significant.”

According to the Food Research and Action Center, over two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese.