The government has recently announced its plan for a new 'Obesity Campaign'. Their strategies include calorie labelling at restaurants and bars, and also a weight loss app to help those who's BMI is 'overweight' to help them lose weight.

This campaign could be highly damaging to those with eating disorders. Anyone can have access to this app, including those that may have, or are vulnerable to having an eating disorder. Not only that, but it could also be damaging to those with an eating disorder who are trying their best to go out and eat in public - being faced with calorie labelling alone could be enough to trigger someone.

Lastly, BEAT (Beat Eating Disorders) has also called out the government for this campaign, saying: 

"Beat recognises the importance of reducing obesity, but it is vital that the public are not shamed into losing weight in an attempt to solve this problem. This approach oversimplifies obesity, reducing people’s weight to a matter of individual choice and ignoring the many complex factors involved, which may include eating disorders."

Also, here are some statistics from the BEAT website:

"We believe approximately 1.25 million people in the UK have an eating disorder. Around 25% of those affected by an eating disorder are male. Recent research from the NHS information centre showed that up to 6.4% of adults displayed signs of an eating disorder (Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, 2007)."

Please help me and many others, by signing this petition and making the government rethink this campaign. Thank you.