Big Macs, Domino’s pizzas and Greggs bakes could get smaller as part of crackdown on UK obesity crisis

Public Health England has asked the food industry to ‘voluntarily’ cut calories on fast food items, which could mean the Big Mac will be 20% smaller. 

McDonald’s won’t be the only chain that could be affected by PHE’s new rules. Domino’s pizzas, a portion of fish and chips and even Greggs bakes could be affected in the shakeup.

Calories would be reduced by 20% in fast food and by 10% in children’s food bundles such as ready meals.

The 20% calorie reduction would see the Big Mac drop from 508 calories currently to 407. 

Similarly, a pepperoni pizza from Domino’s would become 1,982 calories in the plans, reduced from the existing 2,478 – which is 478 calories over the entire recommended daily intake for women. 

Pizzas regularly contain more calories than the recommended daily intake and so were singled out in the scheme by PHE. 

Savoury snacks such as sandwiches and crisps would also see a calorie reduction of 5% under the new scheme. 

The government is also set to recommend a plan to help reduce people’s salt intake as many are having 8.5g a day, exceeding the 6g limit. 

Public Health Minister Jo Churchill told The Sun: “We can all do our bit to stay healthy, to help protect us from coronavirus and take pressure off the NHS.

“The food industry can play their part, by making it as easy as possible for everyone to eat more healthily. These guidelines will help them take positive action.

Chief nutritionist for PHE, Dr Alison Tedstone added: “Eating food and drink that’s higher in calories than people realise is one of the reasons why many of us are either overweight or obese.

“This is about broadening choice for consumers, as well as making the healthier choice the easy choice. Progress to date on sugar and salt reduction has shown that this can happen without compromising on taste and quality.”

Obesity costs the NHS £6.1 billion a year, with 28.7% of adults in England being classed as obese and 35.6% classed as overweight.

Dr Hilary Jones spoke about Britain’s health crisis on Good Morning Britain, warning that the issue needed support and motivation rather than humiliation. 

Hilary said: “People who are overweight or obese need GP support, but unless you address the issue in the first place and weigh them, you can’t give that support.

“The conversation has to take place, it has to be honest, it has to be frank and it has to be non-judgemental.

“Support services need to be there, but when £65million is being spent by social services in terms of bariatric equipment, such reinforced beds, heavy-duty wheelchairs, it’s something that needs to be solved because the NHS can’t afford it.”

This follows recent headlines which saw a suggestion from the National Obesity Forum to weigh children in schools from September to ensure children are ‘losing lockdown weight’.

The National Child Measurement Programme weighs and measures children at school and passes the information onto the NHS to ‘plan and provide better health services for children’.

Parents will receive a letter from local authorities which will provide more information on whether your child will be weighed and measured. 

The information will compare children’s weight with their age, height and sex, using the controversial BMI measurement tool. 

The proposal was met with swift backlash. 

Many people explained that weighing children will do more harm than good and will damage the mental health of youngsters. 

Claire Mysko, CEO of the National Eating Disorder Associated, explains that BMI and weight are not holistic measures of health.

While the Centres For Disease Control and Prevention neither recommends for or against the use of the Body Mass Index measurement programme it says that pupils should be in a ‘safe and supportive environment for students of all bodies sizes’.

Adding to this, the CDC explains that there is no conclusive evidence that such programmes are effective in improving health in children. 

Mysko explains that tests can lead to bullying, shame and even disordered eating. Adding that schools should prioritise what makes children feel happy and strong, not encouraging them to fixate on what they look like or numbers on a scale. 

A spokesperson for the government programme told Refinery29: “We are also well known for pointing out that zoos measure their animals annually to check their good health, but our children, the country’s future, are ignored!” 

Mysko responded to this saying comparing children to zoo animals was ‘unhelpful and bizarre’.

She added: “We know that weight and BMI are not accurate measures of health and while we do need screenings in schools for a variety of issues, including eating disorders, and we need to be mindful and vigilant about ensuring that we’re measuring the health of kids.

“Weight and BMI are not what we should be looking at.” She adds that the onus of health shouldn’t be placed on an individual, especially a child.

“This is a systemic problem, not an individual issue, many people in our community who have struggled with eating disorders or who are in higher weight bodies have been subjected to years or lifetimes of diets and harmful weight loss programs, all built on the assumption that an individual can control their weight or environment, which isn’t a helpful or accurate way of framing the discussion.” 

Mysko explains that while Covid-19 has ‘serious life-threatening complications’ we mustn’t forget ‘mental health’ of children. She added that we ‘need to look at the risks of shaming kids for their body size in an environment where there are already so many mental health risks’.

Explaining that children have little control over their environment, what they eat and their ability to exercise, Mysko adds: “We need to be supporting kids now more than ever.”