Food labels showing the amount of exercise needed to burn the calories in the product are touted as a way to reduce obesity, but not everyone is convinced.
Researchers at Loughborough University in the UK believe that labeling select foods with their Physical Activity Calorie Equivalent (PACE), which tells people how much walking or running is needed to “burn off” food , can reduce obesity.
“PACE labeling is effectively about trying to translate energy into food,” Professor Daley said.
“Simply giving people a number [of calories or kilojoules] without context it doesn’t really help them make a decision.
“[If] I just told you, for example, ‘You know, a packet of potato chips is 150 calories,’ what does that really mean to you, as a consumer? It’s only three numbers, right?”
Professor Daley recently presented the PACE idea at the International Congress on Obesity in Melbourne in October.
While the Loughborough University team is still testing PACE tagging in cafeterias and vending machines, they say the initial findings are promising.
“Our initial findings have shown that when PACE labeling is placed in a context where people have to make food choices, it reduces the number of calories that the public selects for consumption, which is exactly what we’re trying to do.” to do,” she said.
“Most of the public is overweight, most of us eat too much and don’t get enough physical activity.
“We also found that the public has said that if the PACE label were introduced, it would help them think about what they eat, but also help them cut down on buying really high-calorie foods.”
The majority of the Australian adult population is overweight
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics Health Survey, conducted in 2018, found that 67% of adults in Australia and 25% of children were overweight or obese.
Some ABC Radio Perth listeners said they thought PACE tags would be useful.
Hendo: “I’m a MASSIVE chocolate addict. I think the new labels are a good idea to keep me informed about how much extra physical activity is required for the chocolate bars I eat daily.”
haley: “Setting the pace is a great idea. Informed consent before slipping into a candy bar. It might even inspire people to exercise.”
kim: “I like the idea. It would give me the incentive to walk back and forth to the store if I really wanted a candy bar instead of driving to get it.”
Others had reservations:
Ciara: “I don’t like this idea. As a recovered bulimic and anorexic, we don’t need labels that make people more obsessed with numbers and calories in this diet-obsessed culture. We need to focus on eating mostly fresh food, nothing wrong with that.” with chocolate bars. The ingredient list is sufficient and good.”
Alex: “You can have 300 calories from a donut or 300 calories from a piece of fish. They have the same caloric value, but one will satisfy and the other is just empty calories. It matters more where the calories come from.”
Foods ‘more than calories’
Sheri Cooper, associate professor in the school of health and medical sciences at Edith Cowan University in Perth, said that while PACE labeling could provide useful information to people, a healthy lifestyle is about much more than counting calories.
“We know that food is much more complex than that. It’s full of nutrients, and it’s important whether those calories are from nutrient-rich sources or are discretionary calories,” Dr. Cooper said.
“From a weight management perspective, you need to live a healthy lifestyle, which really requires that you eat a well-balanced diet that’s full of all five food groups, as well as not eating too many foods that are high in our saturated fats.” , sugar and sodium. And this system doesn’t really distinguish that for consumers.”
While calories and their exercise equivalents can be very useful information for people to receive as part of personalized advice from a dietitian, she is less convinced of its value as a population-level strategy.
“For the past 20 years or more, registered practicing dietitians have been using this as an educational tool to help some clients manage their weight,” he said.
“It’s a good tool to show the difference in how calories contribute to energy in the diet and how those calories are burned.
“Extending that to a label in a public health nutrition message is something else entirely.
“We really need good quality research to show that getting that message out really does reduce the occurrence of chronic diseases that occur in the population.”
Promotion of healthy lifestyles
Dr. Cooper said that exercise should be viewed as part of a healthy lifestyle with a variety of benefits that go far beyond burning calories.
“We really need to go back to the messaging of the Australian Dietary Guidelines, which emphasizes including some form of exercise every day.
“[As well as burning calories] it can address a lot of other things: it reduces stress, it increases lean muscle mass, which increases your metabolic rate.”
Dr. Cooper also wasn’t sure whether the labels would motivate people to exercise more.
“People operate on many different levels,” he said.
“There is no evidence to prove that.
“Even the researchers proposing this strategy acknowledged that there is a gap in the evidence and there is definitely more research to be done before we make public health policy on it.”
There is no need to blame food.
Eating an occasional candy bar or muffin should be something people can do without feeling guilty or feeling the need to immediately compensate with exercise, Dr. Cooper said.
“That’s healthy eating, isn’t it? Healthy eating, as we know from the Australian Dietary Guidelines, is sometimes having foods that don’t fit on the plates of the Healthy Dietary Guidelines.”
Professor Daley agreed that there was no single strategy that was likely to reduce the number of people who were overweight or obese.
“I think there are many things we can do,” Professor Daley said.
“We need all the information and strategies that we can to try to help the public make these decisions, considering that most of us are overweight or obese.”
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