Could Adding Calories To Menus Cause Issues?
Article by Elle Coales
Recently, the UK government announced that from next year, larger “out-of-home” food businesses will have to display calories on their menus and food packaging. This means that any restaurant, café or takeaway business with over 250 employees will need to show the energetic value of food items in a place clearly visible to the customer. The new measures are being put in place as part of the governments’ strategy to tackle obesity and facilitate healthier decisions.
However, the move has already been labelled as “disastrous” for the estimated 1.25 million people with an eating disorder. There are also questions raised as to how effective displaying calories will be on changing behaviours for the general population.
With 2/3s of the adult population being classed as overweight, the new policy aims to facilitate healthier menu decisions, especially for those who do not cook or are less confident about recognising healthy options. Several restaurants and food outlets, such as Wagamamas and McDonalds already list their calories and other nutritional information. Placing nutritional information in restaurants may help to improve awareness of the “health halo” impact that mid-tier restaurants have compared to take out food outlets. A 2018 study (1) found that fast food outlet meals typically contained fewer calories than surveyed restaurants, despite being seen as the less healthy option.
Moreover, some meals may be labelled as healthy, and calorie labelling can help to bring awareness to this, especially in the case of meals and drinks where toppings can add up to a higher amount of calories than expected. One finding when investigating the need for calorie labelling was that people tended to consume an additional 200 kcal daily when eating out of the home. By including labelling on menus, consumers may be better informed about the nutrition of out-of-the-home meals that they choose to purchase.
Another argument for displaying the calorie content of food is that it will push chain restaurants to reformulate recipes to have a better nutrition profile (2). Previously, the levy on sugar sweetened beverages was put in place to place the onus on brands to reformulate rather than placing the responsibility (and cost) on the consumer. Reformulation to more balanced recipes will change the environment to facilitate healthier choices, without passing on the responsibility to the consumer.
For people with eating disorders, choosing food can already be a source of anxiety and potential guilt. Having calories listed on menus could worsen these feelings. Counting calories can be a key feature of many eating disorders, with calories in menus exacerbating the focus on this. This comes from many months of lockdown and restrictions, with BEAT charity reporting significant rises in demand for their eating disorder helplines over the last year.
Food is much more than simply calories. Adding something like salmon to a plain salad might increase the calories listed, but will also provide omega-3 fatty acids and protein, not to mention making the salad more satiating. Moreover, the listed calories don’t take into account other factors that will influence how your body responds to the food, such as caloric availability and fibre content.
Although providing calorie labelling may help consumers to make an informed decision around meals, drinks and snacks, it risks overlooking the bigger picture of nutrition, whilst causing additional distress to those with eating disorders. Introducing laws and regulations that make companies improve their recipes may be more beneficial. This would change the environment to facilitate healthier food choices, and minimise the potential harm to vulnerable groups.
This post was written by Elle Coales @enliveingelle , an Associate Registered Nutritionist and yoga teacher. Elle has a Master’s Degree in Nutrition from the University of Leeds and works as a Nutritionist on the National Diabetes Prevention Programme. She has a special interest in offering gentle nutrition support for women’s health including PCOS, fertility, pre/post natal and the menopause. She also works as a social media intern for Forking Wellness and Dietitian UK.
References:
Roberts, S.B., Das, S.K., Suen, V.M.M., Pihlajamäki, J., Kuriyan, R., Steiner-Asiedu, M., Taetzsch, A., Anderson, A.K., Silver, R.E., Barger, K. and Krauss, A., 2018. Measured energy content of frequently purchased restaurant meals: multi-country cross sectional study. bmj, 363.
Theis, D.R. and Adams, J., 2019. Differences in energy and nutritional content of menu items served by popular UK chain restaurants with versus without voluntary menu labelling: A cross-sectional study. PloS one, 14(10), p.e0222773.