UK researchers encourage labelling food with exercise specs. to tackle obesity
Healthier dietary choices may be as simple as looking at food labels– recent research data by the UK’s Loughborough University suggests that physical activity calorie equivalent (PACE) labellingof food/drink could reduce up to 195 calories per person, per day.
PACE labelling aims to show how much physical activity is needed to burn off the calories in that particular product – for example, the 229 calories in a small bar of milk chocolate would require about 30 minutes of walking or running to burn off.
A comparison of PACE labelling with other types of food labelling in at least 14 relevant trials was observed to significantly change the selection and consumption of most food/drink, by about 80-100 fewer calories consumed per meal.
The researchers think that PACE labelling might potentially cut down around 200 calories off daily intake, in an average three meals daily plus two snacks.
While regular over consumption of calories can lead to overweight and obesity, the findings show that a small reduction in daily calorie intake and slightly more physical activity are likely to help curb obesity.
“PACE labelling could be easily included on food/beverage packaging by manufacturers, on shelving price labels in supermarkets, and/or in menus in restaurants/fast-food outlets,” the researchers added.
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