Calories Case

It's a known fact that counting calories can become obsessive and lead to eating disorders, which are far more unhealthy and dangerous than obesity. Anorexia and bulimia nervosas are the most common psychiatric disorders. Eating disorders carry a higher death rate than any other psychiatric disorders, such as depression and schizophrenia combined. Statistics show that eating disorders take form in pre-teen and teenage years. Teens and pre-teens tend to think they are consuming too many calories. They cut back by lowering their intake without knowing all the facts which leads to dangerous behaviors. Anorexia occurs when an individual is at least fifteen-percent underweight and refuses to gain weight by not eating enough, over-exercising, laxatives, or vomiting. Anorexia can lead to the weakening of heart muscles which causes cardiac arrhythmias. Other effects of anorexia include dehydration, osteoporosis (bone loss), loss of muscle cartilage, heart rate damage (abnormal or irregular), heart failure, sexual dysfunction, lanugo growth (fine hair) and hyperactivity. Bulimia is another known eating disorder, but it doesn't always mean underweight. This disorder is described as binging and purging. For those not familiar with the terminology, it simply means a person consumes a large amount of food then uses laxatives or vomiting to purge the food from their bodies. This leads to dehydration and gastrointestinal problems. Other effects of bulimia are tooth decay, constipation, bloating, edema (swelling of the stomach), kidney failure and heart failure. Our society seems to be overly concerned about obesity. As you've just read, drastic weight loss is far more detrimental to your health than obesity.

Many stakeholders view displaying nutritional information on menus to be a disadvantage. There are many groups and or individuals that have a stake in how their products are marketed, perceived, labeled and promoted. Therefore, providing calorie information can be viewed as being bad for business. Efforts to promote a healthier you, entails eating better which means more fruits, vegetables, and grains and less fast food and dinner nights out. This will of course have a grave financial impact on the stakeholders. While many American's wish to strive for healthier and satisfied lives, we must wonder what responsibility they are willing to bear in order to achieve that goal.