Calorie count ‘creating risk for children’

PUBLIC Health England is increasing the risk of children developing eating disorders by telling parents to count calories, a charity has claimed.

The Change4life campaign encourages parents to “look for 100 calorie snacks, two-a-day max”, to help tackle the obesity epidemic, in which a third of children leave primary school overweight or obese.

Beat, an eating disorder charity, said it was important that messages aimed at reducing obesity considered the impact they may have on those at risk of developing an eating disorder. It added that while the campaign was aimed at parents, it was likely to engage younger audiences and encouraging focus on calorie counting could be harmful to those susceptible to eating disorders.