For those of you who have taken a science class, you know that a calorie is unit of energy and is not measures by weight necessarily...what I am referring to is how much weight people give to the importance of a calorie. How important is it to them? How much time do people spend looking at calories, counting calories, thinking about calories, and consuming/not consuming calories? You do not have to have an eating disorder for calories to be important. Athletes count calories to make sure they are consuming enough, Dieticians count calories because it is part of their job.etc. There are many reasons why people count calories and why they are important to them, but there are those out there that calories weigh too much of an importance in their life.
The appearance of calories are showing up everywhere. Companies are now putting the calorie content of a soda in big numbers right on the front of the can, just incase one didn’t bother to look at the nutritional facts on the back. Recently in California it became mandated to put nutritional facts on every menu item in a restaurant; which includes mcdonalds to applebees to starbucks. We all know that a Caramel Frap isn’t always the best choice, but now being unable to escape the realization that its 1500 calories might kill the enjoyment for some. I can understand the reason companies and the government choose to make nutritional facts more available. They want people, who normally aren’t aware, to become more educated about what and how much of it they are consuming. For people who did not pay attention before, now they have no choice anytime they go out to eat or get a soda out of the vending machine. Now that people are aware, they can choose to make the "healthier" decisions, maybe apples instead of French fries, or maybe a diet instead of a regular soda. (I put "healthier" in this case in quotations because not all foods that are low in calories are necessarily healthier). For some having the calories on the side of a can is very helpful, for others, it can be an unwelcome reminder of what they are about to put in their bodies
After seeing the good in the appearance of calories I couldn’t help but see what negative effects there can be. For a person with an eating disorder, calorie content can be very triggering. Seeing it now on everything can seem overwhelming for a person with disordered eating. Its in their face more than it has been, and ordering something from a restaurant might not just be a choice of what they are craving that day, but what has the lowest calorie content. During my internship we were instructed to divert sometimes attention if we could see they were focusing on the nutritional facts on their food items. Working in a ED unit, you notice the important that calories have on someone’s emotions. For someone used to counting calories and controlling what does or does not go into their body, finally introducing food that was before “off limits” due to its calorie content, can be very hard. This is a reason why we were instructed not to let them focus on the nutritional facts label. There are various other reasons for this rule, but I can see how someone in the situation might not enjoy the food item as much if they know the details, or it might even prevent the person from wanting it all together. Eventually, we want those recovering from ED to be able to look at calorie content and not have negative feelings towards them, but in the earlier phases of recovery, this might be impossible. So I can see how those with ED might have a problem with the appearance of caloric intake increasingly obvious on food products, but even those without ed can have problems with it as well.
American culture in the past 10 years or so has devoted so much attention on dieting, and most of these diets involve cutting calories. This creates the problem of what one wants and what one “should” have. Yes, we all want to make healthy food choices, but when we don’t, should we be subjected to the burden of knowing the piece of cheesecake we just consumed was half of our recommended daily calorie intake? I don’t think so.
Besides affecting the consumers of these products now, what about the younger generation. The "dietless" generation. The kids who have no idea what a calorie is or what a diet is, how are they going to react to this change? I was at a restaurant the other day, where, there is calorie content next to the menu item, and I overheard a small child asking the mom what the extra numbers were? The mother told the child that it was the amount of calories. The child proceeded to ask what that meant and the mom said something to the effect that its how many points food is; That good foods are less and bad foods are more. As you can probably predict I wanted to go and slap this woman with the menu lol i was not happy. The child is learning at such a young age what is “good” food and what is “bad” food. In my opinion, there is really no such thing. Everything is good in moderation, and as in life, its always important to have a good balance. It makes me concerned that I know this is not the first child to ask their mom the same question, and it worries me to know what other parents are saying as an answer to this question. Are we setting up the child for a healthy perspective of food, or are we setting them of to have a black/white mentality of what they should and should not eat. Should a child ever feel guilty for eating a certain type of food? Of course not. We should be very aware of how we teach out children about food, so they don’t have an unhealthy perspective later on.
Another very important question is, should an adult ever feel guilty for eating a certain type of food? The answer remains the same, no. But for some, that question might be a little harder to answer for some Remember, youre child is like a sponge and their behaviors will reflect youre own. Just because you are educating your child about food in a healthy manner, if you do not follow your own advise your child will see that. For example, youre at a birthday party and cake is being passed around. Your child grabs a piece of cake, but when the mother is offered a slice she makes a comment saying “no thanks, its too many calories, im trying to watch my figure”, the child will see and pay attention to that, and the next time they are offered a slice of cake, it wouldn’t be too surprising they could give the same response. Like they say, monkey see monkey do. And yes the parent might be trying to stay away from food that is high in calories, but it might not be best to demonstrate your concern about calories in front of your child. I am not saying that this child is going to have an eating disorder later in life, its just something that I would be more aware of as a parent who is trying to teach the child to have a positive view of food.
Anyways, going back to my main subject of the more prominent appearance of calories, I think it should have stayed the way it was. Knowledge is power, but I think in this case it is important to look at the cons and not just the pros. Instead of having the calorie content on the can, I think the government should instead use those efforts to teach kids more about things such as the food pyramid. Teach kids the power of whole grains or what foods can make their bones grow strong. I think if the government took this approach instead of just focusing on calories, I think the perspective of food will change and people will stop stressing about calories and instead embrace foods because of how they help your body to function. Just some food for thought… ;)
PS. sorry about my absence from the blog. trying to get back and pumping out more blogs :)
