Should Calories Be Put On Menus?
I was invited onto BBC Three Counties Radio recently to discuss whether putting calories on menus and beer pumps would help in the fight against obesity and I’d love you have a listen! What are your thoughts?
Interview here: https://tinyurl.com/y2y7zmp5
These were my main points:
✏️ CALORIES DON'T TELL THE FULL STORY ✏️
A bag of popcorn can have 150 calories and also an apple, but this is misleading information and not a fair representation of either food. We need to look at the actual content of food (like the fat and sugar for example) rather than calories, which don’t really tell us much, therefore in a restaurant setting, a dessert could be low in calories, but high in sugar and this is extremely confusing!
😕 THE COST OF CALORIE COUNTING 😕
Consider this: Calorie counting ➡️ Restriction ➡️ Increased Desire ➡️ Obsession ➡️ Loss Of Control ➡️ Self-Loathing.
Whoa! Heavy, but this is what I have experienced and also see around me. I have read calorie counting can also lead to a higher rise in eating disorders and I can well believe it. The more I have tried to restrict my overall intake and criticise myself for eating more than I ‘should’ have over the years, I start on this spiral of feeling out of control and am really down and hard on myself, it’s a pretty miserable way of living!
👎 DIETS DON'T WORK 👎
This was a bit of shock when I first started researching this topic; how on earth can this be?! There is Level A evidence (the highest kind possible in science) stating that in 95% of cases, diets IN FACT makes you put on MORE weight as you embark on this diet-cycle binge for years and years. You do initially lose weight, then you gain it again and so on and so on. I don’t want people reading this who are actually on a diet right now to think I am critisting and making what you are doing feel pointless, but what I do want, is to start a conversation and say to people that if you are on a diet and you are failing, it is not because of you and your efforts, it is the simple fact that the diet IS the failure, not you! We are not supposed to be good at starving ourselves!
- So, what are the alternatives? -
😧 DROP THE FEAR OF FOOD 😧
Eat a wide range of food from puddings to pears to pasta to to peas! If you don’t like eating a particular food but you’ve been told it’s full of ‘amazing healing/supportive properties’ then find something else you do like...or don’t! Think about eating a balance of all food groups. The next time you fancy eating that doughnut but are weighed down with guilt, heck..just enjoy it! If we drop the fear of food and start trusting ourselves a bit more, we may not crave particular foods as much, as the obsession reduces. This can be applied to other areas of our lives like exercise too. If you really don’t like running, find something else that keeps you fit and happy. I genuinely love the buzz after a class workout so that’s what I’m sticking to and also to have general time out for my mental health.
🙏 FOCUS ON WELLBEING, NOT WEIGHT LOSS 🙏
Best advice for wellbeing I ever heard was ‘go to bed an hour earlier' by Dr Chatterjee. His point demonstrated that a lack of sleep can lead to an increase in weight gain, low mood, higher stress levels and low interest in exercise amongst others. Everything is linked and that’s why we can’t just focus on weight loss, the approach needs to be all-inclusive. I have personally found that when I am sleeping better, I WANT to look after myself better by keeping fit (mentally and physically) and eating a balanced diet.
🚀 DROP THE 'DESTINATION THINKING' 🚀
‘I’ll feel so much better when I’ve lost that weight/am eating better/thinner’ etc! For anyone struggling out there, why don't we all give ourselves a break and live from today? I mean really live. Free yourself up from all these expectations and rules and stop living ‘in transit’. If you want to make changes, focus on small ones so you don’t put it off for that ‘perfect moment’ which, unsurprisingly, never comes! Another bit of great advice from Dr Chatterjee is his ‘5 minute changes’ which have really resonated with me. This means you can start from today and not have to live with that constant pressure and guilt that another day has passed and you haven’t started your ‘diet blitz’!, yet! I’ve been doing sit-ups for 5 minutes each night and I am starting to see changes in just over 4 weeks. I’m not putting myself through a strict regime, I’m being kind to myself if some nights I don’t fee like it. Gone is the looming guilt of not doing something drastic about my weight and my mental health is better for it and I’m more likely to stick at this than some strict diet plan which is proven to stop working after 6 months anyway (another fact I didn't know!).
👧 KIDS' MEALTIMES AND CALORIES 👧
Whilst this topic may not seem directly related to kids’ mealtimes (which is what my page is about!), a large part of what I write about is a child’s natural ability to be able to regulate their own appetite and know in themselves when they are full or hungry, how incredible is that! This can get overridden if we interfere too much with how much our kids are eating, so actually, given the focus on mealtimes should be more about the balance, the need for calorie counting does not fit into this mould and is certainly not something I would want my twins to do in the future. I know this is a controversial topic and I welcome all views, my only request is that it’s kind in words for either side of the debate as this is a supportive space!
This post has been checked and is supported by Registered Dietitian, Laura Clark Nutrition www.lecnutrition.co.uk
For further reading on why diets and calorie-counting don’t work, please see here: https://www.academia.edu/27944277/Weight_Science_Evaluating_the_evidence_for_a_paradigm_shift
https://eatingdisordersqueensland.org.au/wfheict/uploads/2018/11/Everything_You_ve_Been_Told_E-Book.pdf
Thanks for taking the time to read this! Grace