Calories on the menu - just why?

[Figmentofmyimagination]

Visited pizza express last night to catch up with a girlfriend - first visit since pre pandemic. Ordered my favourite fiorentina pizza with spinach and egg but my enjoyment was somewhat diminished by reading the 950 calorie count on the menu. I understand that this is the law now. Who decided that this is a good idea? Absolutely crazy.

Because I want to make an informed choice about my meal?

We had a pub tea last week and I was really surprised by the number of calories in some of the meals! (Hand battered fish, chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce was almost 2000 calories!!)

I am usually quite savvy with meal choices but there's an awful lot of people who aren't and end up consuming large amounts of calories without realising.

I think it’s counterproductive and stigmatises eating. It further embeds this ludicrous idea that ‘calories are bad’ and the only measure to asses what is healthy and what isn’t.

What will happen, in practice, is you’ll get women up and down the country sitting in restaurants feeling guilt and shame around food and obsessively totting up calories to permission themselves to have a pizza, and the vast majority of men won’t care and will just crack on anyway.

Besides. No one who goes to Pizza Express is doing so in anticipation of getting a healthy meal, regardless of whether they order pizza and sponge pudding or a ‘massive salad’ and mineral water. Come on.

The obesity crisis is driven by numerous complex psychological reasons. The maths of calories is just a framework that gives the illusion of control. You solve it by educating kids on preparing balanced meals, reducing packaged and processed foods, and generally getting people to move more.

It’s a small part of helping people be more aware of what they are eating. Lots of people turn a blind eye, or think ‘it’s a treat, it doesn’t matter’ but for some maybe seeing the actual number of calories, in this case HALF your daily allowance, will help them make small changes.
Something has to be done about the obesity epidemic in this country, the cost to peoples health and the NHS, and particularly to children who grow up overweight/obese is enormous.
Little things like this can help create an environment where more focus is given to what is in our food. And will hopefully put more pressure on restaurants to offer more healthy options.
You only have to eat an excess of 150 calories a day to gain over a stone each year. Little changes can make a big difference.
And as someone who has previously had eating disorders I still think it’s a good idea.

We’re the kind of classy family who sometimes eat out at ‘Spoons.

Dd(18) might have missed the point of putting calories on the menu. She works out the cost per calorie, and says it gets her the best value for money .

I don’t have especially strong feelings either way, but it does feel like the menu equivalent of plastering health and safety warnings everywhere.

And I'm sorry but I don't get the ED argument. What is the difference between calories on a menu and calories on the front of a supermarket ready meal! All the food we buy has calories displayed!

It really affects my enjoyment of my food (when visiting the uk). Like others i rarely eat out. Wolfing down 2000 calories in one meal won't really affect my weight. It's the rest of my lifestyle that does. Really, everyone has an idea of healthy and unhealthy food.

I live in a country that doesn't do this. The people aren't any bigger here - in fact the opposite. But there is a generous welfare system and lots of government support - practically no poverty. I think that achieves what the calorie listing aims for. Boring and much more expensive though.

@PatientlyWaiting21

I’d rather see how much much protein, fibre and carbs are within each meal, not the calories, macros info would be so much more useful!

Hear hear!! *bangs gavel

I wish instead of calories they'd just stick a little QR code on that you scan and it brings up all the information such as calories AND the macro split!

Personally I like it. Some of the things have way more calories than I would have guessed. Helps me choose

"If you’re worried about eating too much calories then bank calories over the week if you know you’re going out"

That's what people will do, but they need to know how many to bank.

"For those with an eating disorder, it’s awful"

Many obese people have eating disorders. They take an all or nothing approach. We need to go back to calories and I say that as someone who's lost weight using Exante. I've now gone on to calorie counting. I'm in the same groups and it's a realisation that hits us all, calories matter. They matter for children and so does exercise.

Soresoresore Marketing is nothing to do with it, it’s the law now.

I like it. I am 50 and suddenly have to watch my weight, after never having to do so before. In a post Covid world, I think its helpful. I find it amazing that a Costa panini can be nearly 500 calories.

@DogsAndGin

Anorexia affects up to 12% of women, and 1% of men. So of course the huge issue of how printing calories on a menu affects anorexic people was completely overlooked. Gotta help those over eaters! (Which are mainly… you guessed it… men!)

Whilst I would not normally disagree with inherent sexism again women, I think you're off the mark here.

According to this NHS report (admittedly a few years old) 67% men and 62% women were "overweight", and a greater proportion of women were "obese" than men:

digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/statistics-on-obesity-physical-activity-and-diet/statistics-on-obesity-physical-activity-and-diet-england-2019/part-3-adult-obesity

I think more realistically being overweight us veiwed more negatively by society (not saying its right) and costing more to the tax payer, so is seen as needing more direct action. And if you thought calories on menus might help >60% men and women who are overweight even at the expense of 12% with anorexia, well you can see how that would end...

I'm not saying I think this will massively help with obesity, or that I agree with it, but I don't necessarily think it's a feminist issue as much as a fat phobic issue (I.e. being thin, even unhealthily dangerous thin, is better than being even slightly overweight).

I voted YABU as it helps me make better choices (such as... I really fancy that dessert, so I'll have salad rather than chips... not just picking the healthier stuff all the time!) People can really underestimate what they are eating.

Plus many people eat out due to necessity not as a treat (work trips etc)

But... I completely respect the viewpoint about eating disorders and the damage there. And bringing up our kids to have a healthy relationship with food.

I wish more places offered smaller portions of food.

Everyone else should be allowed to enjoy their pizza in peace

OP this really gave me the giggles. I've got visions of someone trying to eat pizza in a restaurant with someone crouched next to their table shouting "YOU REALLY SHOULDN'T BE EATING THAT! YOU KNOW VERY WELL YOUR ARSE HAS BEEN GETTING A BIT CHUNKY RECENTLY!" through a megaphone inches from their face. Calories amounts printed on a menu isn't exactly stopping anyone "eating their pizza in peace". Man with megaphone, yes. Calories on menu, no.

It doesn't bother me. P F Changs had a green bean dish it was over a 1,000 calories. I passed and got a veggie curry with half the amount of calories.

"Wolfing down 2000 calories in one meal won't really affect my weight."

The language used around eating is much more damaging. You are eating whether it's 2000, or 200 calories, not wolfing, slurping, stuffing etc.

@Mummy1608 I always bake sausages in the oven on a silicon mat in a baking tray (that way they don’t stick to the tray, and they don’t need any oil). You don’t get grease spatters over the hob either!

From a relative who works in food regulation, it’s a quite ineffective way of getting individuals to make massively different choices about food at a societal level. But it is a brilliant way of getting big food businesses to reformulate their products to be healthier - as they know seeing how many calories are in your pizza at the point of purchase will put people off ordering. Thought that was interesting.

@clopper

My DD has an eating disorder and she has told me what a nightmare this is for her.

Same. My DD is actively suffering with an ED and this new ‘initiative’ has already started to have harmful effects on her. We try to avoid chain places anyway but we will do so even more now as smaller places aren’t legally obliged to disclose the calorific content of their meals.

@howtomoveforwards

I think it’s I think it’s useful - I am very overweight and it certainly stopped me having a pudding the other day.

What we really need is carb content - my youngest child is type 1 and guess the carbs when out and about is very hit and miss,

We need protein content per meal for our family (PKU).

Places that do full nutritional info are really helpful.

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies

We’re the kind of classy family who sometimes eat out at ‘Spoons.

Dd(18) might have missed the point of putting calories on the menu. She works out the cost per calorie, and says it gets her the best value for money .

I do this too lol!!

But genuinely it is helpful for me to see calories as someone with a recovered ED. Otherwise I'd slowly slip back into losing weight if I can't keep an eye on it.

Considering I have a few friends who have health conditions caused by weight gain then I think they’d agree calories on a menu is a good idea.

It’s all too easy to order a starter, main and pudding, have no idea of the calorie content and be greedy and complacent about nutritional values in food.

Back in the day when people watched their weight more you’d see people say, no, I’ll just have a starter and main or main and pudding but now we just tend to order it all, plus cocktails etc! Calorie content really helps as a reminder.

@Mercurial123

It doesn't bother me. P F Changs had a green bean dish it was over a 1,000 calories. I passed and got a veggie curry with half the amount of calories.

Right? Things can look healthy but be very not.

I don’t think we should remove the information to assuage people with EDs, no. That may seem unsympathetic but they are in the minority while most people would benefit from a dose of reality about what goes into your local friendly pizza.