Calories on Menus - Nutritionist’s Perspective
Something you may have noticed lately in the UK is that you can see calories on menus when ordering food and beverages in some places. This is down to new legislation coming into power from the 6th April 2022 making it compulsory for any restaurant, café or takeaways employing over 250 people to display calories on their menus. There is much to discuss here so here we go…
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The aim of this legislation is to make the population more informed when making decisions while eating out. It’s an initiative to impact the population’s weight and health.
I support the aim to improve the health of the population. However, I do not agree with the concentration on weight and calories. As I have explained in my earlier blog, Wight and Health, the two are not as mutually exclusive as we think. Therefore, concentrating on weight and calories does not mean the population will be healthy or that they will partake in health-promoting behaviours.
Eating out is only an occasional experience for many. Food is more than just the nutritional value. When we go out to eat, it’s a social, enjoyable experience. Health is found in balance and consistency. When eating out, we may choose foods we don’t typically eat often but really enjoy, and that’s the balance achieved. Your health will be much more impacted by your daily habits and food intake than an occasional outing here or there. For those who do not calorie count or who do not know how to interpret calories, this legislation won’t be helpful. For those who have a history of calorie-counting, dieting, or are recovering from/have an active disordered eating or eating disorder, this can be very harmful. Remember, eating disorders are mental health conditions and have the highest rate of mortality among psychiatric disorders. It’s estimated that between 1.25 and 3.4 million people in the UK are impacted by an eating disorder. For those who would benefit from seeing the calories, the calories have been available to them previously, often on the company’s website. The need to now make it compulsory to be visible only stands to damage people’s enjoyment, recovery and relationship with food.
We eat food, not numbers. Unless you are calorie counting, the majority of people won’t know how many calories they are consuming. So, how much beneficial impact can a one-off situation really have? Also, calories aren’t equal, nor are they always very accurate. The health qualities of a meal are found in the micronutrients rather than the calorie content. Therefore, concentrating on calories can be very misleading as to what is healthy. Furthermore, research into calories on menus is unclear of any clear benefits.
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I am disappointed in this legislation. I wish that the resources and time spent on debating this topic for YEARS had been invested in making health more accessible to the population. An individual’s choice on what to have for one meal in a week won’t make or break their health, nor does it make health any more accessible to them. I believe the harm this legislation poses far outweighs any potential benefits.
Until next week.