Researchers urge Australia to adopt food labels estimating exercise needed to 'burn out'

Labels on junk food such as chocolate bars could indicate the amount of exercise needed to reduce calories. Researchers suggest ways to counter Australia's rising obesity rate.

English researchers who developed the "calorie equivalent of physical activity" (pace), which suggests how many minutes of walking or running would "burn" food after eating it, will present their research at an obesity conference in Melbourne next week, stating that this shows that the labeling encourages people to eat fewer calories compared to other systems.

Researchers say the Pace system could complement Australia's grading system by health stars, which rates packaged foods from a half star to five stars based on their nutritional value.

Amanda Daley, professor of behavioral medicine at Loughborough University in the UK and one of the researchers behind e Pace, said many Australians ate too much and didn't get enough physical activity, causing them to gain weight.

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Australian Bureau of Statistics figures from 2017-2018 showed that 67% of adults were overweight or obese, up from 63.4% in 2014-2015. If current trends continue, more than 18 million Australians would be overweight or obese by 2030.

"People underestimate the number of calories in foods and don't understand what calories mean because it's just a number on the package or menus - there's no context or meaning to that number," Daley said.

Rate labeling "converts calorie counts into context that makes it easier for the audience to understand and therefore make their decision to buy or eat food or drink."

But the idea could fuel “problem” dietary cultures, according to Danni Rowlands, of the Butterfly Foundation, a charity that supports people affected by eating disorders and body image issues.< /p>

She said everything that encouraged people to start looking, counting and burning what they s eat changes their relationship with food.

"This real black - and white notion that what we eat should be burned [is] a very, very problematic and dangerous message for anyone of any age, but especially young people and those who are vulnerable to developing eating disorders or disordered eating,” she said. .

"We don't look at fuel holistically and food holistically. Yes, it's there to fuel the movement, but it's also there to power all of our energy systems.'horrified' to see this labeling introduced to Australian shelves.

"[This is] yet another example of trying to use shame to motivate healthy behavior," Yager said. "It hasn't worked for the past 20 years and I don't think it will work now."

Yager, who works in physical education and eating disorder prevention, said studies of food labeling and messaging programs should take into account how participants feel , in addition to any physical health outcomes, and should include "long-term research to see if it would trigger a sort of eating disorder".

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Daley agreed that it was important to consider the pros and cons of any intervention, but said research so far on Pace labeling had shown that it didn't lead to no unhealthy relationship with food.

"Over 60% of the population is overweight, with many dying from diseases that could be prevented by having a healthy weight - and we also have a responsibility to all those people to help them do goo...