There has always been a strained relationship between food and health, or as the polemicist George Bernard Shaw once stated with reference to statistics: "Very few of those who have made the habit of eating survive." So who should be surprised if the new labeling requirement in large English gastronomy seems indigestible to many?

Ever since restaurants and cafés with more than 250 employees – we are mostly talking about chains – have had to indicate the calories served on the menu, there has been a debate as to whether this is more of a benefit or a harm.

The government sees its new law as "part of the strategy to tackle obesity", which affects more citizens in the UK than in most other European countries.

Almost two thirds of the English are overweight,

half of them in primary school, costing the National Health Service billions of pounds each year.

The labeling requirement, which has been in place in supermarkets for years, is now intended to “help people make more informed, healthier decisions” in restaurants too.

In addition, the politicians hope that the restaurants "feel encouraged to offer lower-calorie offers".

Jochen Buchsteiner

Political correspondent in London.

  • Follow I follow

What sounds like "common sense" arouses outrage from four different quarters.

On the one hand, there are the fundamental objections of the libertines, who still have a sizeable lobby in England.

They speak out against the "nanny state" and don't want to be constantly lectured as citizens - especially since they have only just escaped the claws of the Corona requirements.

Second, economic reasons are brought into position.

Emma McClarkin from the British Beer and Pub Association speaks of an "extra burden for our business" after the Corona period.

The reaction of customers to the calorie label is quite "divided" because many simply come "to treat themselves to something and don't want to feel sinful".

This leads to the third objection, the social one.

Because the new regulation mainly affects those who should be affected - people who go to cheap hamburger and pizza restaurants to save money.

Government may have been as kind to its citizens as Lord Byron was to women, discouraging them from showing themselves eating and drinking except lobster salad and champagne.

This kind of thing doesn't go down well in fast-food restaurants.

Tabloid columnist Clemmie Moodie wrote of "another stick to smack the working class with while the high-end Michelin Star sheds don't have to give calorie counts on their nitro-poached mousse flavor-blockers."

And then there are the representatives of those suffering from eating disorders in the Kingdom, whose number has skyrocketed to more than 1.2 million during the time of the pandemic.

Beat's Tom Quinn said he was "extremely disappointed".

He knows from people he supports with anorexia and bulimia that calorie information on menus only makes eating disorders worse.

After all, the government has inserted a clause into the controversial law.

At the guest's request, the waiter may hand out a menu without calorie information.