If you’ve used Google Maps lately, you might’ve come across a curious new change: a note that lets you know how many calories you could burn based on the distance it would take to walk to a location. But now that feature is gone following a swath of social media criticism, reports The New York Times.
While seemingly innocent, this correlation between diet and exercise could lead to dangerous consequences.
“We’ve gotten into this habit of thinking about our bodies and the foods we take in and how much activity we do as this mathematical equation, and it’s really not,” Stephanie Zerwas, the clinical director of the Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders at the University of North Carolina, told The New York Times. “The more we have technology that promotes that view, the more people who may develop eating disorders might be triggered into that pathway.”
One national study suggests around 500,000 teens contend with eating disorders or disordered eating, according to the National Eating Disorders Association.
Google took down the feature Monday night, which it referred to as an iOS app experiment, The Times reports.
It’s also unclear how Google came to the calculation that mini-cupcakes were 110 calories apiece. The Washington Post notes that Wegmans sells 97-calorie mini-cupcakes, but Canada’s Prairie Girl Bakery has some that are 200 calories.
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Google Maps Removes Mini-Cupcake Calorie-Counting Feature originally appeared on usnews.com
