Most parents would recoil in horror, but calorie counting is now being taught in the examroom. Last week, students sitting their GCSE Mathsexam were welcomed with this question: ‘There are 84 calories in 100g of banana. There are 87 calories in 100g of yogurt. Priti has 60g of banana and 150g of yogurt for breakfast. Work out the total number of calories in this breakfast.’
The answer, by the way, is 181 calories (a ridiculously tiny breakfast). But what the exam board failed to work out is the impact this could have on young women sitting the exam.
Exams are stressful enough, but being reminded of calorie counting was enough for one student - a girl recovering from anorexia - to flee the exam. While it’s unknown just how many people will have been thrown off course by the question, considering 1.25 million people in the UK have an eating disorder- and these conditions are most prevalent between those aged 12 and 25 - the number is likely to be huge.
Following complaints, Pearson, which own the exam board Edexcel, found the question to be valid, saying that those “triggered” can complain.
But the question is not valid. Not when most young women - in some shape or form - struggle with eating, not when when teenagers are most susceptible to peer pressure and #fitspo on Instagram. Normalising calorie counting amongst women is incredibly dangerous, because what can start off as a seemingly harmless equation can result in a deadly, all-encompassing disease.
As a teenager who wasn't particularly good at maths, I became so good at calorie counting, that I lost weight until my periods stopped. Thanks to MyFitnessPal, I knew exactly how many calories I could have for breakfast (under 150, if I was feeling generous). When my extreme weight loss started to plateau, I oscillated towards bulimia as I used comfort eating to combat the stress I felt while studying for my A-Levels. Though I was eating more, I was still obsessive about food and its nutritional value - just, instead, I cared more about how I would get rid of it.
The thought that 15-year-olds battling similar demons would have to answer an exam question which would force them to face their relationship with food - in an already highly pressurised environment - breaks my heart, as does the thought that young women are being habitually taught that calorie counting is a normal part of life. It makes me angry that an exam board - or anybody else, for that matter - thinks calorie counting is innocuous; Pearson’s response just doesn’t suffice. If there’s one time and place where you shouldn’t be worrying about your body and your calorie intake, it’s in the exam room as a teenager. As I had to learn, there are far more important things to focus on.