Calories on menus will kill, and I’m scared it will kill me. 

For the past three years my life has been consumed with daily calorie calculation, weight loss and an infeasible lust for control. Not only is my brain at a breaking point but even more so is my body. There is one opportunity to truly challenge an eating disorder, to allow all control surrounding the food to be taken from you. With calories on menus, the unknown is now known, and there is no longer an opportunity for challenge but rather to choose a meal that nutritionally will not suffice a malnourished body. 

Not only will this result in difficulty for those already suffering from an eating disorder but will also act as its breeding ground. I yearn for a society where I do not worry for the mental well-being of my 11 year old brother as I am reminded he is only a year from the age I first self harmed. It’s seemingly not in the governments interest. Introducing the concept of calories to adolescents, who are already more susceptible to addiction, will result in a catastrophic rise in eating disorders. I was 14 when I learnt how my calorific intake affected my body, by 15 my body was in critical condition due to malnutrition.

The government are, sickly, hiding their reluctancy to invest any funding into the obesity crisis by forcing businesses to display calories on their menus, under the guise that it allows people to make more informed choices. This is not a viable solution. It’s a dangerous one. Funding to make local gyms and sporting clubs more accessible along with the relaying of accurate information regarding healthy eating would be more beneficial to the entire population. It has taken me years to learn that low calorie and healthy are not synonymous so why perpetuate it to the public particularly impressionable young adults? 

The government have already failed me through the underfunding of CAMHS please don’t let them do it again. Make an “informed choice” and sign this so Boris Johnson reverses the damaging addition of calories to menus.