Statement: “I want to see the calories on the menu"

In a fast food restaurant you order a tasty hamburger with fries. The menu shows how much the dish costs, for example 12 euros. But not how many calories you would get if you ate everything. Nor whether a fish burger with a salad is a lighter choice. In Great Britain, calories have recently been on the menu of restaurant chains. Is that a good idea? Comment below.

Agree: it helps to make healthier choices

Half of the Dutch are too fat, just like in Great Britain. In fact, we live in ‘Lockland’, where we are constantly tempted to make unhealthy choices in our diet. Every reason to do something about it. With the calories on the menu, a restaurant plays open hand about what’s in a dish. That helps people to moderate in energy-rich dishes. In America and Canada it has been customary for some time to list calories on the menus of restaurant chains. In practice, by the way, ‘chains’ mainly refer to fast food restaurants. That indeed appears to work – people come out with (slightly) fewer calories in their stomach, according to research in PLOS Medicine.

Disagree: no whining about calories when I go out to eat

A meal out is usually higher in calories than a meal at home. Salt, oil and butter are generously used to give the dishes extra flavour. For that you also eat outside the door, to enjoy a dish that you do not have to make yourself. You may not like being confronted with the amount of calories in your meal. Second point: it is a bit one-sided to only look at the amount of calories when it comes to the nutritional value of dishes. According to the rules of the Nutrition Center, it is more about eating enough vegetables and fruit, choosing vegetable proteins, limiting trans fats to a minimum and being moderate with fast sugars. No one wants to put all that information on menus.