Calorie labels on restaurant menus are harming people with eating disorders, a new evidence review claims.
These labels are meant to make it healthier to eat out at restaurants, by informing customers of the calorie content of food choices.
But people diagnosed with eating disorders tend to respond poorly when presented with a menu featuring calorie labels, researchers reported Jan. 28 in the BMJ Public Health.
Unhealthy responses included avoiding restaurants altogether, triggering harmful thoughts associated with eating disorders, and obsessing over the calorie counts.
Some said that seeing these menu labels actually reinforced the beliefs behind their eating disorders, researchers added.
“It’s definitely set my recovery back by a long way and I only feel safe eating at home now,” a patient with an eating disorder said in one of the studies included in the review.
“Our study highlights that people with lived experience of eating disorders are frustrated at being left out of the conversation around calorie labels,” senior researcher Tom Jewell, a lecturer in mental health nursing at King’s College London, said in a news release.
The obesity epidemic has caused policymakers to act without any thought to the impact on people with eating disorders, Jewell added.
“Striking a balance between the positive and harmful impacts of calorie labels on menus is vital in any public health policies,” he said. “Policymakers should consider the impact on both obesity and eating disorders when making decisions about nutrition labelling.”
For the analysis, researchers reviewed results from 16 prior studies involving more than 8,000 people.
“Findings were mixed, but mostly showed negative impacts of out-of-home nutrition labels on people with lived experience of eating disorders or disordered eating,” researchers wrote.
For example, people with eating disorders were more likely to focus on calorie labels on menus, unable to ignore them.
“I become hyperaware of the idea of the calories,” one participant said. “I imagine my body ballooning up. I feel dirty.”
They also became uncomfortable when the labels prompted diet talk by friends.
In one study, a participant recalled feeling uncomfortable “having to ask other people at the table to stop discussing the calories which makes the rest of the meal very awkward,” concluding that they felt “people would rather just stop inviting me to stuff.”
“Typically, there is a lot of focus on whether policies are effective in reducing obesity, but it is also critical to investigate whether these policies inadvertently harm people with eating disorders,” co-author Nora Trompeter, a research fellow with University College London, said in a news release.
“Our review also shows that more research is needed to fully understand the impact of calorie labels on individuals with eating disorders,” Tompeter concluded.
More information
Tufts University has more on restaurant calorie labels.
SOURCE: King’s College London, news release, Jan. 28, 2025
Source: HealthDay
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