Sometimes knowledge is not power …
Last week the government announced that from April 2022 when we visit a restaurant, we will be able to ascertain the calorie content in our food choices, as all establishments are required to inform customers, in an attempt to support them to make healthier choices.
Imagine, all you think about all day is how many calories is in your food, or you carry a lot of shame around the food you eat, thinking you are greedy, being labelled as such by others, and then now other people can also see the amount of calories you are eating? Sometimes something that may be of a positive intention does not affect people equally or is it the diet culture creeping in again in an attempt to try and control people’s weight!
With the isolation, stress and uncertainty experienced over the last fifteen months, where eating difficulties have already been exacerbated, it feels a real concern for the people who are really grappling and fighting a battle everyday with their relationship with food and their overall mental health.
I can imagine for those internal parts that value knowledge and control, such as the restrictors or dieters it will feel like a huge relief, yet is this a progressive move forward? The research shows that calories on menus are an ineffective way of discouraging obesity. For people with eating difficulties and anxieties, going out for dinner will already be a challenge, without then being faced with a menu that will only exacerbate fears about eating. They say calorie counting is about making us healthier, yet is it for the person who now feels further isolated as going out for dinner with friends and family is even more of a mammoth challenge?
A study in the US found that having the calorie content on foods, actually resulted in people choosing the higher calorie choice in a bid to get value for money…therefore lending itself to an ineffective strategy to support the nation to be healthier.
Further investment in NHS services to support people to understand their relationship with food, whether their eating style is restricting, regularly dieting or emotionally driven is where the focus is needed. Furthermore, focusing the efforts in the communities that need it most, such as those experiencing deprivation and poverty where knowledge and understanding regarding healthy living is limited and equitable access to a “healthy” diet, inadequate would be far more beneficial.
If nothing else, hopefully people will be given choice in the menu they receive, a provision of opting out of this intervention could at least go some way in ensuring that for the 1.2 million people experiencing a mental illness that eating out can still be something that can be enjoyed. Yet ask someone with an eating difficulty if that would be the case and I am certain they would answer, “It would depend on which part of me that night is sitting at the table”.
If you have a difficulty with your relationship with food and would like further support, visit www.drclairestubbspsychologist.co.uk Or email us at withyouinmindpa@gmail.com
