Quezon City is now requiring restaurants to display calorie counts—it may be extra work for the establishments, but it’s needed for a healthier public

Last week, the Quezon City local government finally passed an ordinance it’s been promising for a while now: Restaurants in the locality are now required to display calorie counts of all the food they’re serving on their menus.

While some health-focused and wellness-minded restaurants have already been doing this for some time now, this is the first time that most establishments are required to tell people just how much they’re consuming.

It’s “most” and not all, however, as small establishments such as carinderias and food stalls are allowed to voluntarily follow the rule, as testing to find these numbers is generally cost-intensive. Still, this is a major step forward towards better health for all.

It’s important to remember that obesity is one of the major health risks still threatening people today—the QC health department found that 43 percent of adults in 2018 were overweight or obese, while 19.9 percent of school-aged children were suffering as well

Why is this important, you ask? Perhaps you’ve come across this article not knowing much about calorie counting, thinking that this is yet another oversensitive imposition by an increasingly “woke” society. But it’s important to remember that obesity is one of the major health risks still threatening people today—the QC health department found that 43 percent of adults in 2018 were overweight or obese, while 19.9 percent of school-aged children were suffering as well.

Obesity is very much serious business, and the best way to combat it and lose weight is really to reduce the calories you’re taking in, both by eating less and burning more through activity. And eating less doesn’t always mean eating less food (though that’s true most of the time), but also consuming fewer calories while maintaining the quality of your food intake.

Anyone who’s restricted their calorie intake knows all too well how it’s easy to fall into the trap of eating less just to consume fewer calories and still feel hungry—all because you didn’t eat that much. If you’re on a diet, you’ll want to find food that looks like it’s a lot but isn’t actually packing on as many calories as it seems, and a displayed calorie count will really help you find the food you need to have.

You can deal with the consequences of the big burger you’re about to dive into later, but it would be unfair if they withheld that information from you

The opposite also holds true. A lot of times, you’ll run into processed food and fast food that doesn’t look like it’s a lot, but they sneakily punch you in the gut with a boatload of calories you weren’t expecting. There’s definitely nothing wrong if you want to enjoy something crazily calorie-dense every now and then, but you do have the right to know how much you’re sending down your throat.

You do deserve to be warned that the big burger you’re about to dive into is 800 or 900 calories. You can deal with the consequences later, but it would be unfair if they withheld that information from you.

A boon to embattled calorie counters

Calorie count displays would also help solve the problem counters have. Apps and services such as the famous MyFitnessPal have a database of food, and you can scan most of the barcodes from the items you buy in groceries here to look them up, but for restaurants, you’re really mostly throwing darts blindfolded.

This is why people like Sukat Squad on Instagram feel compelled to provide a public service by trying to measure restaurant and fast food items to figure out their macros. Basically, we shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to make better health decisions.

Will these calorie counts be inaccurate? It’s entirely possible that they will be

Will these calorie counts be inaccurate? It’s entirely possible that they will be. I just saw a notable scandal in the local protein supplement industry, in which a lot of Filipino brands (and even a popular international brand) were discovered to be overstating the protein content of their powders. That’s something that could also happen in this situation but even an inaccurate count could still give you a general picture of how much you’re taking in.

Now that QC is getting this, I’d really like to see this implemented in the whole country. Of course, there will need to be a better way for establishments to figure out the calories of their food, but this small step could lead to major, much-needed changes to Filipinos’ health. Better health means a better life for all as well—and really, who wouldn’t want that?