11/04/2022
⚠️Calories on menus ⚠️
It’s been almost a week since the BBC interviewed me about the new legislation regarding it being compulsory for establishments with more than 250 people to print the calories on menus. (See clip below!), since then, almost everyone Ive encountered has shared their views with me and it’s been so interesting. Feel free to comment your views below.
Clearly, this initiative from the English government is with the intention to tackle obsesity. However, sadly this feels very much like a misguided attempt. My patients who suffer from disordered eating have shared how dangerous, troublesome and anxiety provoking it will be for them.
Assigning calories to menus may help raise awareness and educate people on the number of calories, and from that stance may perhaps make people consider their food choices more carefully. However since the majority of food eaten takes place in the home, it is unlikely to really have a significant impact on reducing obesity and in actual fact eating out should be enjoyable, rather than potentially creating shame around food decisions.
This approach shows a lack of compassion for those in obese bodies. It needs to be about healing relationships with food rather than assigning calories to food with the assumption that this solves the problem.
Calories don’t inform us of much about the food at all. Often, more nutritious food will have higher calories, and therein lies the problem; if we look at calories of a measure of a healthy diet, we completely overlook food quality. Aside from calories not always being accurate, they also do not tell us how much of the calories eaten will be taken in by the body- and this varies in each of us anyway, just as daily requirements differ amongst us all.
Listing the calories on children’s menus is equally concerning, and confusing. Parents may be left wondering whether they ought to be considering calories for their children, and for vulnerable parents this is something that causes additional anxiety.
For those worried about this new law, smaller establishments are not being required to add calories to menus. These might be a safer option for those not comfortable to face menus with calories displayed just yet, and the option to request a menu without calories upon arrival will help. Consideration of the food order before arrival could be helpful in preventing being swayed by calorie listings.
