Mandatory calorie counts on restaurant menus will fuel young peoples’ eating disorders, charities and MPs have warned the Government.

Leading eating disorder charity Beat has told the Sunday Telegraph its concerns about the proposal, arguing that it would cause “great distress” for those suffering from eating disorders.

Other charities SEED Eating Disorder Care and Anorexia and Bulimia Care, as well as MPs including Andrea Jenkyns, Tim Farron and Crispin Blunt have also voiced their concerns in a letter to this newspaper.

They argue that forcing all restaurants and cafes to include calorie information is unhelpful for those suffering from eating disorders and can hinder those in recovery, as it causes them to “obsess” over calories.

They write: “We believe that proposals to introduce mandatory calorie counts on menus will be ineffective at reducing obesity rates and damaging to the mental and physical health of those suffering with eating disorders.”

A consultation on the issue closed on Friday, with the Department of Health and Social Care due to make a decision on the policy shortly. While larger chains such as Wetherspoons and Pizza Express display calorie counts for some of their menu items, smaller businesses on the whole do not.

Beat’s Chief Executive Andrew Radford told the Telegraph: “Requiring calorie counts on menus risks causing great distress for people suffering from or vulnerable to eating disorders, since evidence shows that calorie labelling exacerbates eating disorders of all kinds.”