Is THIS what your favorite snacks will look like in the future? Obesity experts want to do away with traffic light labels in favor of calorie-burning equivalents, which tell you to walk 15 minutes to burn off a candy bar.
- Experts want snack labels to say how much exercise you’ll need to burn it off
- You might see a slapped candy bar with a warning to keep running for 20 minutes.
- Traffic Light Labels Are Confusing And Make It Easy To Excess Calories, They Say
- The results are based on a survey by British experts of more than 2,500 consumers.
<!–
<!–
<!– <!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
Junk food labels should tell shoppers how much exercise is needed to keep cakes, cookies and chips from making them fat, experts say.
You would see a 200 calorie item with the warning that it would take a 30 minute walk to burn it off.
Experts in the fight against obesity say the information would be much easier to understand than today’s traffic light stickers.
So it would be more likely to deter people from buying foods that are bad for their waistlines, they believe.
Researchers at Loughborough University tested the concept, known as physical activity calorie equivalent, or PACE, on 2,668 consumers.
In general, people preferred the existing red, yellow, and green labels that warn if an item is high in salt, sugar, or fat.
The food warning label of the future? Scientists want to tell consumers how much exercise they’ll need to do to burn off the calories from their favorite snacks.
In the UK, this would replace the well-known traffic light system that warns Britons about foods that contain higher amounts of fat, sugar and salt.
A full 43 percent said the traffic light system was better, compared to 27 percent who opted for PACE.
However, they admitted that PACE was easier to understand and more appealing.
Nearly half (49 percent) said PACE got their attention the most, compared to just 39 percent for the traffic light system.
And 41 percent found PACE an easier way to understand calories, compared to just 27 percent for red, amber and green warnings.
Lead researcher Professor Amanda Daley, an expert in behavioral medicine, said: “Nutrition labels help people make food choices and traffic light labeling is the UK standard.”
“However, many people do not understand the meaning of kilocalories or grams of fat shown on food labels.”
As a result, “they often underestimate the number of calories when the labeling is not provided,” he added.
PACE is already used in some apps like MyFoodDiary and myfitnesspal to turn meals into the exercises needed to burn them off.
People questioned in the survey said they would prefer the labeling system if it only put out snacks and junk food like chocolate and cakes instead of staples like bread, rolls or vegetables.
The authors said: ‘Our findings highlight that PACE labeling is a potentially important policy-based approach to strengthening current approaches to food labelling.
“The next steps are to test whether PACE labeling reduces purchases of high-calorie foods and beverages in different food settings, such as restaurants, vending machines, cafes and pubs.”
The results of the survey will be presented at the International Congress on Obesity in Melbourne, which will take place from 18 to 22 October.
Excess body weight is seen as one of Britain’s biggest and ever-expanding health problems, with the latest data showing that 64 per cent of adults are overweight, and more of us are projected to gain weight in the future. future.
Obesity is not only increasing British waistlines but also health care costs, with the NHS spending an estimated £6.1bn on treating weight-related illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers between 2014 and 2015.
The United States faces a larger obesity epidemic with an estimated 73.6 percent of adults considered overweight or obese.
HOW SHOULD A BALANCED DIET BE LIKE?
Meals should be based on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, ideally whole grains, according to the NHS.
• Eat at least 5 servings of a variety of fruits and vegetables every day. All fresh, frozen, dried and canned fruits and vegetables count
• Base meals on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, ideally whole grains.
• 30 grams of fiber per day: This is the same as eating all of the following: 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, 2 whole-grain crackers, 2 thick slices of whole-grain bread, and a large baked potato with skin.
• Drink some dairy products or dairy alternatives (such as soy beverages) choosing low-fat and low-sugar options.
• Eat some beans, legumes, fish, eggs, meat and other protein (including 2 servings of fish a week, one of which should be fatty)
• Choose unsaturated oils and spreads and consume them in small amounts.
• Drink 6 to 8 cups/glasses of water a day
• Adults should have less than 6 g of salt and 20 g of saturated fat for women or 30 g for men per day
Font: NHS Eatwell Guide
.
