Halt legislation regarding calorie labels to protect those with eating disorders

Rejected 18 signatures

What the petition asks

Do not make calorie labels compulsory for large out-of-home sector businesses, but protect the UK's 1.25-3.4m people with EDs and stem their rising mortality rates. Calorie counting fuels EDs, but labels are shown to be ineffective in reducing overconsumption (https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l5837).

Calorie counting is an eating disorder behaviour which can become obsessive for fear of weight gain. The legislation creates triggers and prevents those with EDs being able to eat out (contradictory to 'eat out to help out') and will take a toll on the NHS, as EDs have the highest mortality rate of all psychiatric disorders. Balance and health at every size should be promoted over arbitrary weight loss. COVID-19 has led to an increased number of ED sufferers (see BEAT's open letter to the PM).

Why it was rejected

There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.

You may wish to sign this petition calling for the same action: Stop the plan to include calorie counts on menus

Timeline

3 Aug 2020	Petition opened for signatures
6 Aug 2020	Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 18

Status Rejected

Rejected 6 Aug 2020

Follow this petition