Can you walk it off?

IF FOOD items available to you indicated how much walking you’d have to do to burn off the calories, would this influence your choices? To find out how consumers would behave to this suggestion, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will conduct a study in collaboration with the Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of North Carolina.

The “Effects of Physical Activity Calorie Expenditure (PACE) Food Labeling” study, with over $2.3 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, initially involves three BCBS cafeterias where food items will be tagged with physical activity labels. These labels will indicate the number of minutes and the number of miles it would take to burn calories. For example, a double-cheeseburger would take 196 minutes or 5.6 miles of walking to burn the calories it contains. A hamburger (that contains far fewer calories), would take about 78 minutes or about 2.6 miles of walking to burn the calories. Having the information to compare such numbers among food items, may help consumers pick the healthier options.

Anthony Viera, MD, MPH, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and adjunct associate professor in the Public Health Leadership Program

“We believe that labels displaying information about physical activity will allow people to better appreciate the trade-offs of high-calorie foods, and thereby influence them to make choices for foods with lower calories,” said Dr Viera. “And we think that labelling foods like this may even have the extra benefit of promoting physical activity.”

“This is a great opportunity to learn whether we can improve lifestyle behaviour through an innovative approach to policy and environmental change,” added Prof Ammerman.

Alice Ammerman, DrPH, professor in the Department of Nutrition at UNC’s School of Public Health and Director of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

The study is a new approach to helping consumers make smarter choices. An older approach implemented in the United States where over one-third of adults are obese, required restaurants with 20 or more locations to post calorie information on their menu boards. According to research this calorie labelling has not done enough to decrease calorie consumption.