From the 6th of April 2022, all large scale food businesses and restaurants in the UK are required to display calorie information on menus and food labels in an effort to ‘tackle obesity and improve the nations health’.

In theory, this law would be effective, however, the government doesn’t realise that although this may have a small impact on obesity, it will have a huge impact on mental health and eating disorders. Teenagers and young adults are already exposed to an unhealthy amount of diet culture, and don’t realise that healthy eating is only ‘healthy’ if there is balance.

Calories do not show us anything about other nutritional values, and seeing this number on the menu could cause many people with eating disorders and health anxiety to panic or relapse. Also it takes the fun and excitement out of eating out for everyone, regardless of age or gender. Lowest calorie doesn’t necessarily mean the healthiest, and it causes people to panic when they may well have a healthy lifestyle and deserve a treat from time to time. Displaying calories labels food as ‘good’ and ‘bad’, whereas in truth, most foods are fine as long as there is balance.

The real way to deal with obesity is tackle food pricing (one cheese burger from McDonalds is 99p whereas the average single serve salad is £2.50) and to educate children in school in a way that doesn’t half-explain nutrition and create a negative relationship with food.