The increasing pressure on eating establishments to help people make healthy choices in their diet has yielded a new idea; displaying calorific information alongside foods on menus. The idea is that, although people understand the impact or calories, by helping them actually see how many calories they are eating and drinking, they will be better able to gauge the healthiness of their diet. “The introduction of calorie labeling will enable them to see what choices are healthier and help them improve their diets” said Tim Smith, Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency.

The consultation into whether this is a good idea has started recently and will close in March 2010. For now, the Food Hygiene Blog would like your feedback and opinions about the matter. To help you get started, here are mine:

In my opinion, there is too much emphasis on ‘calories’ in the modern diet; calories are a grossly simplified way of thinking about nutrition and cutting them out doesn’t necessarily make a diet ‘healthier’. For example, you could cut your calorie intake massively, to way below the 2000 calories per day recommendation, yet still be consuming way over your daily recommended intake of fat. Having 150% of your daily fat is not a healthy diet, no matter what your calorie intake. The problem is that schemes like this mean people become so consumed (ironically) with not-consuming ‘calories’ that they fail to take into consideration the most important part of a healthy diet; balance. What we need is detailed nutritional information about what we’re eating, combined with the education to know what this means.