Everyone is used to seeing calorie information on the food they buy, but researchers have said it would be more informative if labelling said how much exercise would be needed to burn off those calories. For example, a can of fizzy drink with 150 calories would be burned off with 30 minutes walking or 15 minutes running.
Behavioural scientists said that if a cake label said it would take 90 minutes walking to burn off, that would be more understood than a traffic light system. The study was undertaken by Loughborough University and surveyed more than 2,600 adults, the Telegraph reported.
The labels are known as Physical Activity Calorie Equivalent (Pace). Amanda Daley, professor of behavioural medicine at Loughborough University, was reported in the Telegraph as saying: “Nutritional labels support people to make food choices and traffic light labelling is the UK standard.
“However, many people do not understand the meaning of kilocalories (kcals or calories) or grams of fat displayed on food labels, and often underestimate the number of calories when labelling is not provided.”
The majority of those surveyed wanted to see the Pace labels on foods such as chocolate and cakes, as well as in fast-food outlets, rather than foods such as pasta, bread, fruit and vegetables. For example, a chocolate wafer biscuit with 209 calories would take 42 minutes walking to burn or 21 minutes running, the Telegraph said.
The authors of the survey said in conclusion: “Our findings highlight that Pace labelling is a potentially important policy-based approach to strengthen current approaches to food labelling.
“The next steps are to test whether Pace labelling reduces the purchases of high-calorie foods and drinks in different food settings such as restaurants, vending machines, coffee shops and pubs.”
The study found 41% said the Pace labelling would be easier to understand while 27% said the traffic light system was better. It also found that 44% said such labels were likely to help them avoid food with high calories, compared to 28% who said traffic lights are more effective.
