A red light for fattening choices in restaurants

SIR – With the rising levels of obesity, it is reasonable for the Department of Health to recommend that total calorie values should be attached to menu items (Letters, September 6).

If this measure is adopted, let us not impose an unnecessarily detailed system. Three or four bands would suffice: these could be represented with a colour or a numerical value. Roger Buchanan FRCP

Chandler’s Ford, Hampshire

SIR – I am a specialist in childhood eating disorders. Marking the calorie content on restaurant meals will not cut obesity among either children or adults.

Restaurant food constitutes a small percentage of the calories consumed, compared with the amount consumed in snacks such as crisps, sandwiches, chocolate and biscuits – and these foods come with calorie counts. Obese people don’t care how many calories they eat and children don’t know how many calories they should eat.

Daily calorie requirements among children and adults can vary enormously, depending on muscle bulk and their level of exercise. Perhaps the Government’s next proposal will be to measure everybody’s metabolic rate.

Childhood obesity can only be managed by persuading parents to control what their children eat every day, not just in the occasional restaurant meal. Dr Dee Dawson

London N20