Labelling foods with amount of physical activity needed to burn off calories linked to healthier choices

Labelling food and drink with the amount and type of exercise needed to burn off its calorie content may be a more effective way of encouraging people to make 'healthier' dietary choices, shows research carried out in collaboration with the University of Birmingham. Given that the current system of food labelling by calorie and nutrient content is poorly understood, and there's little evidence that it is altering purchasing decisions or having any impact on obesity levels, it may be worth trying, suggest the researchers following a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. If widely applied, it might, on average, shave off up to 195 calories per person per day, calculated the researchers from the Universities of Loughborough, Birmingham and East Anglia, and Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Physical activity calorie equivalent or expenditure (PACE) food labelling aims to show how many minutes or miles of physical activity are needed to burn off the calories in a particular food or drink. For example, eating 229 calories in a small bar of milk chocolate would require about 42 minutes of walking or 22 minutes of running to burn these off. The UK Royal Society for Public Health has already called for PACE labelling to replace the current system, but to date, there's been little strong evidence to back this stance. The researchers trawled research databases and other relevant online resources for studies that compared PACE labelling with other types of food labelling or none for potential impact on the selection, purchase, or consumption of food and drinks (excluding alcohol).