This has been a hot topic of conversation lately. As of April this year, restaurant chains with over 250 employees are now legally required to list the calories on their menus all around the UK. Is it noble? Is it effective? Does it enable, or does it enable people to take responsibility of their eating habits? Is it a Catch 22 and will it be worse for those with difficult relationships with food? Today I delve into it all, and of course will be sharing my opinion.
WHAT WAS THE INTENTION?
From everything I have read, the idea of the Government doing this was to decrease obesity in the current population, especially considering that the majority of people in the UK are clinically obese. But, the fact it is not a requirement for every restaurant may cause us to question its effectiveness. But, typical of our British Government they most certainly do things in halves. It all seems that it is supposed to encourage people to make healthier choices when eating out. If we are trying to understand their motive in numbers, 1 in 3 children are classed as overweight when they leave Primary school and apparently every year, the NHS spends £6.1bn on overweight and obesity related conditions. Obesity IS a killer, whether you believe it or not. It causes diabetes, high blood pressure, cancers and heart attacks. They are life threatening illnesses that are a lot of the time caused by obesity and can be reversed, especially if people changed their habits. So, is it not helping to improve these dire matters?
BUT HOW EFFECTIVE IS IT REALLY?
Despite all good intentions, in my opinion, it doesn’t really teach people enough about nutrition. Yes, it gets people to think about numbers and yes, may shock people that a chicken kebab with no chips or dips could still potentially equate to near enough 1000cals. But, just looking at higher and lower numbers, that’s all it does. Having overall calories doesn’t get people to think about protein intake, or overall health, as the fat and carb content is also not broken down. You can have a 600cal meal that is just high in carbs and fats with low nutritional value, but you can also have a 600cal meal that’s higher in protein with moderate fats and carbs, with more vitamins and higher fibre and therefore more nutritionally dense. What speaks more about balance and health? Well, the latter obviously. Think of it this way too; a diet fizzy drink may have 0-low calories compared with a glass of orange juice, and a fish dish could potentially have more calories than a pudding!
Furthermore, having these numbers can actually be triggering for someone with eating disorders. Therefore, they may avoid going out to eat altogether, which is vital for them and for anyone with disordered eating to practise good habits such as this in order to recover. Potentially, it could really set someone’s mental health off and cause more issues like anxiety, body dysmorphia, orthorexia and overall damage their body confidence.
The problem for the general public is their everyday habits, not just their eating out. So, is it really effective to be able to control one small aspect of someone’s everyday life? What are the Government doing about improving and changing daily habits and mindset? Not a lot. If I was in charge, P.E and Food Tech in schools would be more prevalent in educating young people on healthy eating, good eating habits and healthy lifestyles rather than just learning how to make a bunch of desserts (that’s all I ever learnt in Food Tech!)
MY RANT:
As well as not educating kids and parents enough as to nutrition and healthy lifestyles, what made me realise that the Government are just ticking boxes was the Eat Out To Help Out scheme after the Covid Lockdowns. There was nothing more laughable than having gyms remained closed and then having pubs reopen first…followed by ‘come on everyone, help your local businesses and eat out for 50% off, so even though you’ve put on shit loads of weight over the lockdown, let’s just help you pile loads more weight on!’ Priorities were so wrong and after Lockdown 1 and seeing how they were making people return to normal life, really grinded my gears. How about you give discounts to gym memberships? How about having a compulsory nutrition course for GCSE and A Level so kids learn early enough and make their own decisions. How about prioritising and teaching about healthy lifestyles?
How about having non calorie menus available at request of people that suffer with eating disorders so it doesn’t trigger them? Doing this one thing of having calories on the menus is not going to be that effective. People that are obese and eat loads of shit and don’t give a f**k will probably not care anyway and eat whatever they want. It involves so much more than just throwing calories on menus. How about every restaurant being consistent in providing more healthy options, instead of a whole menu of just burgers and pizza?
Personally, I like the fact that calories are on menus, but that’s just me. I am someone that consistently lives a healthy lifestyle of balance and functional living. It doesn’t make me obsessed because I know enough about nutrition and macros, but for me, I like the fact that I know how much I’m eating on a night out, but because I love and enjoy healthy food, I will usually go for that option. That is NOT to say that I avoid pizzas, burgers etc but what I am saying is, I will always go with what I fancy, but I will always think of how I’m going to feel afterwards. So if I only want the salmon risotto, or the chicken and potatoes, that’s what I will have.
Maybe it’s because in the competing world, food is all about numbers, which is why I quite like knowing what I’m having. But, do I think it is the most effective way to prevent and decrease obesity in this country? NO.
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IG: @natashakostalas
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