Should food be labelled with activity equivalent information?

Food should be labelled with the equivalent exercise required to expend the number of calories it contains. This is the suggestion from Shirley Cramer, Chief Executive at the Royal Society of Public Health, in an article published in the BMJ. She explains that with more than two-thirds of the UK population overweight or obese, more innovative changes are required in order to adequately address the issue. One of the suggested changes would be to introduce ‘activity equivalent’ calorie labelling, with the objective being that people would be more mindful of the energy they consume, whilst also encouraging them to be more active.

Cramer further explained that 44% of people found current calorie information confusing on food packaging, and 53% said that they would positively change their behaviour if they could see the activity equivalent of the food, this would include changing portion sizes, choosing healthier products and doing more physical exercise. Placing this type of information on food packaging could play an integral part as one of the solutions to such a multifaceted problem like obesity. However, food packaging is governed by the European Union, therefore widespread changes would need to be made in order to push through these suggestions. Therefore, to encourage this idea, Cramer has called for detailed research into its use as a potential intervention to change the behaviour of the general public.