Adding calories to menus could further fuel toxic diet culture

Calorie counting on menus is yet another in a long string of harmful actions by the government that I feel like the general public needs to be actively protected from, which just… doesn’t feel like the best way to run a country!

— cate in the kitchen x (@catekitchen) April 5, 2022

According to Micallef, the reality is that toxic diet culture – fuelled by a society that’s deeply obsessed with body image, so much so that many of us have become worryingly dependent on food tracking apps, exercise tech, and ‘what I eat in a day’ videos – can also instigate feelings of shame among people with no history of mental illness.

For this reason, she fears that further demonising calories with these new rules will inevitably encourage more people to adopt restrictive and dangerous habits.

Not to mention that touting a calorie-controlled diet as being automatically healthier just isn’t true. In fact, despite prevailing discourse suggesting otherwise, counting them is wholly unnecessary in most cases because we are all born with the ability to regulate our own energy.

Yes, keeping an eye on what’s inside the things we consume is important, but it’s equally so to remember that one indulgent dinner with friends isn’t going to stop our bodies from returning to that much-loved set point of balance.

 

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That’s why perpetuating the narrative that overconsuming calories will have a solely negative effect is problematic and why so many have criticised the policy’s intentions.

Instead, they recommend a fresh, more ‘appropriate’ approach that centres around educating manufacturers on better methods of preparation not shaming people for the occasional burger, pizza, or bowl of spaghetti.

‘When I was unwell, restaurants were a rare and special refuge; a place where, because I couldn’t easily count them, calories were off the table,’ writes Clare Finney for The Guardian.

‘It pains me to think that this brief, light relief will be taken away from people like me. It is a cruel irony that those who would ideally take note of calorie labels will eventually ignore them, while those who should ignore them will have to fight every instinct in order to do so. With this new policy, those of us who are at risk of being affected by calorie labelling on menus stand to lose an awful lot more than weight.’