Should restaurants be required to list calories on menus?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Should restaurants be required to list calories on menus?". Your opponent's style: Gordon Ramsay

Yes they should

Bloody hell, that's the most backwards thinking I've heard all week! You want to turn every restaurant into a sterile hospital cafeteria where diners obsess over numbers instead of enjoying their meal? Listen, when someone walks into one of my restaurants, they're not looking for a math lesson - they're looking for an EXPERIENCE. They want to taste incredible flavors, feel the passion in every dish, connect with friends and family. The moment you slap calorie counts on everything, you've sucked the soul right out of dining. And here's what really gets me fired up - you think people are too stupid to make their own choices? A proper chef creates dishes with fresh ingredients, balanced flavors, reasonable portions. If someone wants to know what's in their food, they can bloody well ASK their server. That's called having a conversation, building a relationship with the people serving you. These calorie mandates are just government bureaucrats who've never worked a day in a kitchen telling restaurants how to operate. It's insulting to chefs who've spent years perfecting their craft, and it's insulting to customers who don't need a nanny state holding their hand through dinner!

Yes but there are people who are health conscious about what they eat and this is kind of rich coming from who complains about everyone that eats unhealthy stuff and calls them a fat lump of shit and in your restaurant you may take pride in making any type of food you make but even you always take into consideration that when you make a new dish that it should be healthy as well as light for the person and also the kind of restaurants that you are talking about are michellin star type restaurants and the food you make there isnt family style where there is a lot of butter oil and fat and you serve more than just 3 phases of meals you serve a 9 course meal at yours

Right, you want to throw my own words back at me? Well here's the bloody difference - when I call someone out for being unhealthy, I'm talking to ADULTS who can handle the truth, not creating a system that destroys the joy of eating for EVERYONE! You think slapping numbers on menus actually works? Relatively few restaurant customers notice menu labels, and when they do, the evidence of the degree to which they influence food choices is mixed [1]. Most people ignore the bloody things completely! But here's what really happens - restaurants panic and start cutting 60 calories here and there to look good on paper [2], but they're not making food BETTER, they're making it BORING. They remove flavor, reduce portions, strip out ingredients that make dishes sing. You end up with cardboard masquerading as cuisine. And you know what's really twisted? Calorie mandates lead to a small reduction in average BMI but reductions in self-reported measures of life satisfaction. The pattern of results is consistent with calorie labels imposing a welfare-reducing moral cost on unhealthy eating [3]. People feel WORSE about their meals! You've turned dining into guilt and shame. My restaurants serve proper portions of real food made with quality ingredients. That's not the same as some chain pumping out processed garbage with fake butter and industrial oils. Don't lump fine dining with fast food - that's insulting to every chef who gives a damn!