We’re all used to the concept of calorie counting – in fact, it’s been central to our thinking about weight loss for over a century – and now, in the UK, it’s becoming even more visible. As of April, the government has made it mandatory for restaurants employing more than 250 staff members to display the calorie counts of their dishes on the menu. The initiative, designed to tackle the UK’s massive obesity crisis, has sparked a national debate over whether the inclusion of the information will have any impact on people’s midlines (and what it will do to their way of thinking) which critics face experts arguing that calorie counting is an outdated concept and “fundamentally flawed” method of calculating what we eat. They emphasize that we are all very different when it comes to food metabolism and say it is time we abandoned the calorie altogether.
Rhiannon Lambert, who has been a nutritionist for 10 years, is among those who take a stand against calorie labeling, saying it only tells us a fraction of the story. “We eat food, not numbers,” says the 32-year-old who owns a nutrition clinic in Harley Street. “Do I think calories on menus will help solve obesity? No. Do I think it will affect people’s relationship with food? And it is. “
The reason for her objection is that everyone processes food in different ways, which means that the number of calories listed on the package or menu will most likely not apply to you.
“Of course, a basic understanding of calories can be beneficial and you can not deny the fact that if you eat more than you use, it is stored as body fat and it is important to understand that some dishes contain a lot of energy in comparison with for others, but the way we calculate it and apply it to ourselves is inaccurate, so the concept of calorie counting is fundamentally flawed. ”
The simple number does not take into account the ingredients of the food, which affects how we absorb it and how much energy we get from it, or the fact that we are all different and process food differently – not to mention all our different lifestyles not.
“The absorption will be different for a dish that is high in fiber or good fats, as opposed to an ultra-processed item that is high in sugar and salt and it will affect how much energy we get from it,” she explains, which something calorie is not telling you.
“As well as the fact that we have our unique differences that have an impact on how we use food. Some people thrive on a high-protein diet, others on a high-carbohydrate diet. “And other factors such as people’s age, size and physical activity levels also have an impact.
On top of that, food does more for us than influencing whether we can fit in our favorite jeans or not. “Food should be celebrated,” Lambert says. “It contains other wonderful things – vitamins, minerals, fiber, incredible polyphenols. It affects our brain health and our cells, but calorie counting makes people look at food as numbers. An avocado can have higher calories than a chocolate bar, but it does not you must not eat it. ”
Calories in relation to food were only discussed in the 19th century. A chemist named Wilbur Atwater published an article entitled The Potential Energy of Food in 1887 which explained a study he did that looked at how much of the food we eat is actually absorbed into the body. The calculations used today still form the basis of calorie counting.
Dr Giles Yeo, an obesity researcher at the University of Cambridge, is also angry about calories. So angry, in fact, he wrote an entire book about it. In Why Calories Don’t Count, Dr. Yeo makes the point that not all calories are created equal and that processed foods are far more “calorie available” than whole. “200 g chips are not the same as 200 g carrots. Our bodies need to work harder to extract the calories from unprocessed foods. It is the quality of the food you eat that is more important. ”
He believes the goal should be to encourage people to eat healthier rather than an obsession with calories.
“Obesity is a problem and I understand the pressure to provide more information, but let’s be smarter about this and provide more useful, nuanced information such as protein, fiber, added sugars and saturated versus unsaturated fats. A pure number tells you nothing about the nutrition of the food. If you eat healthy, your weight should take care of itself. ”
There is no escaping that the UK has a problem with food. Currently, 63 per cent or two thirds of adults in the UK are overweight or obese and one in three children leaves primary school overweight. A survey of 1,000 adults by Vita Mojo, whose technology drives ordering systems for more than 90 UK restaurant brands, including Leon and Nando’s, found that 57 per cent of diners said calories on menus would affect their choices. But Dr Yeo says calorie counts have long been on packaged foods – which make up a large part of our diet in the UK – and the obesity crisis is still here. Besides, how often do people actually eat at restaurants? Data from Statista, from 2019, found that 40 percent of the people who asked ate out only once a month and ate at home the rest of the time.
Eating disorder charity, Beat, also questions the effectiveness of displaying calories as a way to get people to lose weight. A 2018 Cochrane review called Nutrition Labeling for the Purchase and Consumption of Healthier Foods or Non-Alcoholic Beverages found that there is only a small amount of low-quality evidence to support the idea that calorie counting on menus leads to a reduction in calories purchased, “said a representative of the charity. “Although a more recent study found that calorie labeling in U.S. fast food restaurants is associated with a 4 percent reduction in calories per order, this reduction has decreased over one year of follow-up, indicating any small differences that may occur. not be maintained. ”
According to Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, it’s useless to focus on calories anyway. “I’m not saying calories exist, but trying to manage your weight by estimating the calories that go into you every day and the amount you burn is almost impossible. It’s really hard to estimate, even if you’re a professional. First, count and weigh everything you have eaten, which most people do not. Then people forget extra snacks and drinks.
“We know that the calories on manufacturers’ labels are within a 10 percent approximate range. And then many products get the same calories, but vary greatly in the food matrix.”
He uses the example of whole and ground nuts. “Whole nuts get the same calories as ground nuts, but this is an overestimation in the whole nut because all that energy is not available. The structure of food makes a difference to the available calories. There is a whole list of mistakes that nutritionists know about, but never make to the public. It is even worse in restaurants, because the calories are complete guesses through the chain and no one checks whether it is accurate or not. ”
In Spector’s view, calories on food are a smokescreen designed by the big food companies to change our minds about food quality. “If you look at a package in a supermarket and see it says it’s low in calories, you think it should be good for you, but it actually has 20 ingredients that look like you’re in some industrial pharmacist and no have no agreement with food. ” This can lead to people eating more food because they believe it is “healthy”. “It’s a meaningless number and putting it on menus is a total waste of time – like sticking a patch on a massive bleed. This is an easy measure for the government to take, but it will do nothing to help the massive obesity crisis. It’s just a pathetic distraction. “
According to Spector, it is ultra-processed foods that are the real enemy. More than 50 per cent of the UK’s diet is now ultra-processed – in Portugal it is only 9 per cent. This means anything with more than 10 ingredients and includes most ready meals, cookies, snacks. “We believe that the chemicals in these foods affect your intestinal microbes and activate your brain. [to make you want to eat more of them]. ”
Instead of focusing on calories, says Spector, who has written two books that dispel beliefs about food (The Diet Myth and Spoon-Fed), says eating a diet that is good for your gut microbes keeps track of full food and maybe even a personal nutrition test like the one he runs, Zoe.
With a continuous glucose monitor, a blood fat test and intestinal microbiome profiling, you can see how you react to certain foods. “It will help you choose foods that match your own metabolism. People can eat identical food, eat identical portions at the same time of day and have different reactions to each other. Some people may experience a sugar dip three hours after eating certain foods and then eat 200-300 calories more during the day, but other people will not. Everyone is different and that is what ignores the calories. ”