AIBU to think this is ridiculous?

I agree with janea's post. I want to venture further into old age in the knowledge that I'm doing everything I can to prevent obesity, type 2 and other conditions that might be preventable. I have made a huge effort to lose weight because I was allowing it to creep up. My fault. Nobody else was to blame.

I get annoyed when we eat out and others think I'm being a killjoy because I don't want a calorie laden dessert. It's always the ones who probably feel guilty that protest.

I love eating with my sis-in-law who has worked hard all her life to keep a really slim figure because the rest of her family is seriously overweight. She totally gets where I'm coming from.

If a restaurant takes the trouble to print the calorie content of dishes on their menu I will appreciate their diligence in the same way I do a gluten free selection.

It is quite an eye-opener to read the calorie content of some Macmeals. It is impossible to guess from some menu descriptions what the sugar/calorie content is likely to be e.g "trio of berry parfaits" or even "3 scoops of ice-cream" ...

I think what this thread illustrates is how far our relationship with food has changed.
We no longer eat to survive as people did only a few decades ago and many people in the world still do.
We longer eat just to be healthy - instead, for many people, eating has become associated with pleasure and reward and the urge to eat is driven not by pangs of hunger but by complex emotional factors.

Perhaps that explains why apparently it’s perfectly alright, and probably necessary in terms of health & safety compliance, for a restaurant to advise its customers which dishes contain nuts and which are gluten free.
But as soon as it’s suggested that people might like to know the calorie content of a meal, there are howls of indignation that treats are being spoiled and the kill-joys and the food police are taking over.

I’m sorry I just don’t get it. Maybe I’m a control freak but I prefer to know where the meat I eat has been sourced, where the vegetables have been grown, whether things contain preservatives and whether they contain high fructose corn syrup.

Ignorance isn’t bliss. People in third world countries have had their health and lives blighted by the manipulations of Big Food companies and we should be grateful that in this country most of us have the knowledge to make informed choices, but it seems that many people would prefer not to.

..."Easy to underestimate ...."

Had a drink in a Wetherspoons recently and looking idly at the menu whilst DH was at the bar was truly shocked at some of the calories listed next to the burger meals and full English breakfasts and such like! (1,800; 2,200!!!) Equally there were some more sensible calorie content meals. Was to underestimate calories methinks!

Spot on, petitpois. I watch what I eat when I'm at home and would treat eating out as 'overlook the naughty'.

I t helps people make better choices and it’s about time. All Weatherspoon’s pubs have done it for years. The local chippy has just introduced a system and offers healthier choices after trialling it for a year and people seem to be very positive.
I am slim, fit and healthy and don’t really need to watch calories right now but I do think we need to be better informed. I would like to see a simple traffic like system introduced so people could be informed in a relaxed fashion. I think showing calories or some form of information should be compulsory in family restaurant’s and places aimed at children and young people. Research shows that when calories are displayed people make better choices. We should also be educating in schools

GG - yes, filo pastry but it sounds as if it wasn't a successful experiment by the lists on the other thread!

If 'Spoons can helpfully put calories on the menu so could other places. I find it makes me confront my eating habits and balance what I would like with not getting any fatter.

Maizie - 'syns' are a Slimming World concept, I forget what SYN is the acronym for. I always thought they should be called 'treats' myself.

If I ask the waitstaff, will they bring me the menu without the calories, please? Like the old fashioned menu without prices?

I think it was opined that filo pastry be used, not pasta.

A Cornish pasty without pastry, but with pasta instead? Eh? That would be pasta, potatoes, onions, swede and beef. That would look carnage on a plate and would be a bugger to take on a picnic!

I was reading earlier today that the NHS want Cornish pasties to be made without pastry, the pastry to be replaced with pasta. I can`t see that going down too well in Cornwall, definitely not here, I and my family hate pasta.

I eat out occasionally and I go out to enjoy myself. I want to eat what is nice, on the menu, not what is calorie free or low. I regularly eat slimming world menus, home cooked, not pre-packed, at home. A special meal should be special. A nice glass of wine, a lovely two or three course a la carte meal. This will do no harm, as I will return to my normal diet, the next day and until I make my next sojourn to a class restaurant/pub for my next soiree into decadence.
Sorry. life is too short to worry about counting calories on a night out. Enjoy the evening and repent for the next few days and then go out and enjoy yourself, again.

I intend to!

Would those who want to know the sugar content of a starbucks muffin or slice of cake, be prepared to pay more? How is it possible to accurately assess the sugar content of a chocolate chip or blueberry muffin when the amount of choc chips and blueberries in each cake vary? The amount of sugar in cream cheese frosting or buttercream and jam would be a nightmare to calculate.
Who will do this?

Great idea as I would like to know myself but if I was going out for a meal it wouldn’t make any difference to what I order as like you say Petipois it’s a treat but would help me know how much I need to cut back the next day or how much exercise.

Not enough exercise nowadays. Children driven 200yds to school, sitting at home with playstayions or on social media, watching Sky, Netflix, eating ready meals, snacking. Even doing jigsaws, knitting, making jewellery or sedentary hobbies, mean that whatever you've eaten is not being burned off as energy.
I walk a lot and ride my bike for 5-8 miles every day in the early morning before breakfast but fortified with a cup of coffee.
It's invigorating.
Not everyone can do this but to shift weight you need to excercise beyond a leisurely pace or a bit of gardening.

I think that nurses should take the advice handed out by the NHS.
Many of them (and paramedics and police) are massively overweight.

I don't think it's being nannied. Nobody is being forced to follow any information on a menu but it might make you have second thoughts about a dish that's particularly high in calories if you want to add an extra course or have another glass of wine.

You can always so NO to cake. Birthdays are once a year. You can choose a small slice or share with someone else.
I get somewhat annoyed when skimmed/lo-fat/half fat/dairy free etc are the only option to a foodstuff.
Low or no fat are often 'worse' for you than the real deal and have more sugar or other additives to enhance the taste.

W'spoons have been doing this for years but what's wrong with using your common sense to suss out that anything with a sauce, lots of cheese, cake or ice-cream, fried or sauteed in butter etc etc, will inevitably be more calorific? There are descriptions of the meal on most menus, therefore you can calculate whether it's fattening or less so.
Do we need to be nannied?

Slight tangent, but the current popularity of cake is a cause for concern, given the obesity crisis and increase in type 2 diabetes.
Today I went to a coffee morning and the pressure to eat case was huge. ( I resisted). We have cake at every opportunity. Birthdays, someone leaving a job....
I wish there were some other treat as enjoyable but less damaging.
I would imagine that most people know which foods are “naughty but nice” , without needing to be told, but I am not convinced that a restaurant menu is the right place to give the calorie count.
I do like to see “light bites” on a menu though, and one pub I go to offers portions in two sizes, large and small, and not just for pensioners or children. I like that idea.

How can the truth ever hurt? I have long ago realised that when people say ‘ nasty’ as in, for example, ‘the nasty party’ they mean people telling unpalatable truths.

I think it is great that diners now know their pizza is often equal to about ninety per cent of the recommended daily intake.

Make better choices or forgo one meal/snack to overindulge on another.

I dont think it is neccessary to put calories on menus,
People go out to enjoy a meal are out to enjoy themselves, and i dont think an odd meal out would matter, not to me anyway,it would take the pleasure out of it

expense