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.

The thing is, for many eating out is not an ‘occasional treat’it’s a regular thing. Loads of people use food outlets as a matter of course…from lunch with the in laws at Pizza Express, to taking the kids to the drive-thru, to grabbing a Markies sandwich for lunch, to ringing deliveroo because we got in late…it’s constant. My Facebook feed is FULL of ‘occasionally treats’ and most of it seems pretty ‘regular’ to me.
We’re a junk food nation.

By law establishments have to have menus without calories available.

So worth knowing to ask for those menus before you are seated.

I like it and I’m surprised it wasn’t a thing before now.
I’ve had to avoid eating out as I’m over weight and have no idea how much calories are in things so I can add it to my calorie allowance, whilst I sympathise with those with ED I imagine they are the minority.

@Figmentofmyimagination

I disagree. Unless I am a complete outlier, a visit to a restaurant is an unusual treat. Anyone who needs to know how many calories are in their pizza can look it up on one of the many apps that are available. Everyone else should be allowed to enjoy their pizza in peace.

For me a visit to a restaurant is a treat. Probably go to Pizza Express about once or twice a year and always, without fail, have the fiorentina pizza. I know without having to look at the menu that it is going to be high in calories but as I am rarely eating it I don't care.

However, me and DH do go out for breakfast and occasionally lunch more and I like knowing how many calories each item has

It's not about policing your choices as if you are a child. The food contains the same number of calories whether the number is written down or not. Your waistband will expand regardless of knowledge. It's absolutely obvious to everyone that pizza, garlic bread, salad dressings are hugely calorific.It is simply extra information you can absorb or ignore. I am not overweight. The traffic light system on food has made me change to different foods. I don't buy things I would eat everyday,e.g breakfast cereal , that has red lights on it. McDonald's have had the calorie content on their food for a long time. A child's happy meal contains a huge number of calories. It is no bad thing for a parent to realise that stopping for one on the way home is the child's evening meal. It isn't a snack before another meal at home. My best friends daughter had Orthorexia as a teen. She knew the calorific content of everything without it being written anywhere. She would never, ever have gone into a pizza place in the first place so a menu with hidden calories would have made no difference.

If people are overweight, they’re doing something seriously wrong somewhere, and listing calories on restaurant meals isn’t going to help.

I think it is quite helpful.

Pre kids I would eat out 4-5 times a week, knowing how many calories I was consuming then would have been useful.
I still welcome it now, there is so much mindless eating going on.

High calories wouldn't put me off a dish, I only eat out every 6 weeks or so.
Overall a good idea.

I think just the calories is not much use, I need to eat better but it's about fat and sugar as well and most importantly what is in it that is good for you.

Looking just at calories gives you the idea that a diet coke is better than a glass of orange juice, now I know orange juice does have a lot of sugar but it also has good stuff in it including enough vit C for the day.

@NotTheOW

That or everywhere could make their portions sensible sizes

This is a MUCH better idea. 90% of the time in restaurants we are eating 50% more or twice as much as we’d eat at home. We’ve stopped getting two meals when we get a takeaway. We get one meal (luckily we both like the same thing) and maybe a starter to share - and that is plenty for two people. We went to Wagamama recently and my favourite dish, the firecracker chicken was over 1100 calories so I had a 600 calorie ramen dish instead which was ok, but I’d much rather have had a smaller portion of firecracker chicken.

I quite like seeing them to be honest, doesn't mean I'll avoid eating my daily allowance in one go but at least I can't avoid knowing it

I used to be obese. I weighed 19 stone. I now weigh 9 and a half and have done for the past five years. I didn’t calorie count or follow any established regime. I made sensible healthy choices and took up regular exercise. That being said, I still like to see the basic calorie content of a dish on a menu…most of us end up being obliged to attend meals out for social occasions and if I’d rather treat myself with wine than pizza I have more to inform my choice with.

@Glamora

Its working then isnt it

If you had pizza and garlic dough balls and some desert it will make you think twice about how many calories you are mindlessly consuming

Personally - i use it to decide between dishes if i am torn

But only people with an eating disorder will react like this.

Normal people will eat what they fancy, 'cos having a meal out is part of their normal eating behaviour.

My DD is anorexic. There are two (sometimes 3) places that she will eat out at. All chains. We are at our caravan for the week. Usually we would alternate eating out and in - gives me a break from cooking (she doesn’t trust DH to cook any more). First night here we booked to go out. It took DD almost an hour to choose what to eat (even though she has eaten there dozens of times) and then she only ate about 3/4 of her ‘lighter option’ meal. None of the options she would have normally chosen will ever be eaten again now. .

It also meant that DH and I tempered our choices a bit, and neither of us really enjoyed what we had.

And of course that means I am now cooking the rest of the week

(I did ask if they had any ‘no calorie menus’ but the staff had no idea what I was talking about)

I find it very helpful and informative. I was in shock at some of the calorie counts on certain pizzas

I find it really useful and am pleased for this change. I do however appreciate that there are some groups of people for which it isn't helpful, for example those with EDs. There should therefore be an option to have a menu with or without calories.

Like other PPs, I am over 50 and have found that I now need to be quite careful about calories to keep my weight under control as my basal metabolic rate seems to have dropped off a cliff suddenly. I absolutely appreciate that keeping calories low is not the same as eating healthily but I see a meal out as a treat so I can choose something a bit less healthy for a change but by being aware of the extra calorie count I can make sure to make a few little tweaks elsewhere to balance it out.

It's interesting also that I would consider myself reasonably well educated about food and nutrition but when eating out recently I was considering 3 different options for main course and the one I thought would be lowest in calories was actually the highest so it helped me make a bit better choice in terms of weight control.

I think it's a brilliant move.

Those who don't care about calories not need to pay any attention.

And finding a pizza under 1000 calories would be great and make me happier

I'm on the fence here. I think it could lead to obsessive restricted eating and phobias but I also think a lot of people just don't realise how much they are consuming in what masquerades these days as everyday food.

I don't eat things like that very often, so it wouldn't put me off and I'd eat what I wanted, but in my younger, more sociable days, I found it useful as I'd be eating out several times a week.

@Ponoka7

"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.

@Ponoka7 obesity is an eating disorder. Calories don’t help obesity. Therapy does.

@Figmentofmyimagination

I disagree. Unless I am a complete outlier, a visit to a restaurant is an unusual treat. Anyone who needs to know how many calories are in their pizza can look it up on one of the many apps that are available. Everyone else should be allowed to enjoy their pizza in peace.

But why is knowing the calories in your pizza taking away from you enjoying it in peace? - it's not a talking menu that yells out the calories everytime you take a bite. If you are not bothered about knowing the calories then why does knowing them take away from the pleasure of your meal, surely just don't give it another thought and enjoy your pizza.

For those saying you sympathise with people with EDs, good, because itll probably be you next. Knowing the calorie content of everything I was eating was what gave me an eating disorder, as it was for an alarming number of others.

If they want to reduce the obesity crisis there are other ways of going about it, ways that will actually work. Knowing the calorie content of everything you eat may cause you to lose weight short term by making you make different choices, but itll also fuck up your mental health in the process.

@TheDoveFromAboveCooCoo

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!

Not everyone eats ready meals. People can avoid them and cook fresh food. Also, a lot of food you buy has the calories per portion on the back, so it can be avoided. Supermarkets and everyday eating are a battle but they have to be done.

However, eating out is an incredibly difficult thing with an ED. An event where the activity is focused on your biggest fear (food, eating) is terrifying as it is, so getting to the table is a challenge in itself. These new restaurant menus have the calories printed right next to the food description so they cannot be avoided and just apply more stress to an already high pressure situation.

The timing is shocking - so many many young people are struggling with their mental health in part due to the impact of the pandemic, including a huge rise in eating disorders - which kill far more youngsters than obesity. No one cares and services are overwhelmed. How many people eat in restaurants day in and day out anyway, if people are obese it's not because they go for a pizza once every couple of weeks and it totally ruins the enjoyment of eating out for anyone struggling to live a normal life because of mental health issues. I think it is completely counter intuitive and will have no impact on obesity whatsoever.

I'd rather it was just available on the website, or a separate menu/leaflet.

I had some issues with disordered eating as a teen, in my early 30s now and I still have to keep an eye on myself as I have a tendency to be a bit "all or nothing" with diets / exercise.

I went for lunch with my dad at the weekend and I can't ignore those numbers. It definitely did influence my choice.

I'm 32 weeks pregnant, I am trying to listen to my body, eat when I'm hungry and make good choices, but instead of thinking which meal is nutritionally good overall (I.e. I'm anaemic, so should have probably be looking for dark green veggies) I was focusing on one factor for quantifying how "good" or "bad" a meal was.

It is going to do more harm than good IMO.

This government is absolutely shit. Won't legislate on serious matters, will legislate on pointless crap that will make eating disorders worse.

ExLtEveDallas That must have been a really difficult situation. The legislation only applies to large businesses (more than 250 employees) at the moment. I guess some small cafes and restaurants will choose to do this but I went to a local Italian last week and the menus didn't include the calorie count. Going to small independent cafes/restaurants might be an option for you perhaps?

I understand they did this in the US a few years ago. So far, overall obesity levels haven't decreased.