Proposed Food Labels Show How Much Exercise Needed to Burn Off Calories

British researchers think new packaging will be more effective than just listing nutritional information.

By Yishane Lee FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2016, 12:55 PM
Food label
IMAGE BY ROYAL SOCIETY FOR PUBLIC HEALTH
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The FDA continues to work on unveiling new food labels, promising an easier way to decipher them. But across the pond, the U.K. is evaluating a proposal to quickly convey just how much you'll have to exercise to burn off a chocolate bar. 

Shirley Cramer, the head of the U.K.’s Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), wants to put a small icon on the front of every prepared food package to help consumers better understand their diet choices.

For instance, a blueberry muffin is 265 calories. According to the RSPH, the average person would need to walk for 48 minutes or run for 25 minutes to burn that off. The idea is to show just how much the food we take in can create a “creeping obesity” (small amounts of weight gained over a long period of time) if we are not careful to expend at least the same amount of calories through exercise over the course of a day or week.  

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