Since when did restaurants become a maths lecture, and why are people so eager to turn their bodies into calculators? I agree with Clare Finney (Putting calories on menus won’t solve obesity, but it will harm those of us with eating disorders, 1 April). Too many people continue to argue that compulsory calorie labelling will be beneficial and make them more aware of what they are consuming, but isn’t it sad that we can no longer listen to our bodies and make the right choices for ourselves without having to turn eating, an innate survival instinct, into some form of regimented algebra?
The proportion of eating disorder sufferers in the UK may be a minority, but it is a large one – nearly 2%. For context, people dependent on alcohol make up about 0.9% of the population. Almost two-thirds of the population are considered overweight or obese. Aside from the fact that the measurement used to determine this, the BMI scale, was developed in the 1830s without the scientific basis that would make it valid today, it is not fair or reasonable to implement a measure that is meant to benefit the majority, but with no conclusive scientific evidence of doing so, to the detriment of a large minority.
Many more people than those officially diagnosed suffer from symptoms of disordered eating – such as obsessive calorie counting. It’s a compulsion. Calorie labelling is for us what forcing wine on everyone who walks into a restaurant would be for recovering alcoholics. You know you shouldn’t, but you can’t help it. It should be an opt-in, rather than an opt-out system, so that it’s not damaging to the millions of people with mental health problems. If I wanted to be faced with a sheet full of numbers, I would get a maths book, not a menu.
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