Love pizza? This is how many minutes you’d have to run for to burn off a slice

If you’re one of the many people that throws caution to the wind when you hit the snack aisle in Tesco, your days of blissfully ignoring the calorie counts on food packaging may soon be over.

The Royal Society of Public Health in the UK is calling for food manufacturers to label foods with an icon clearly stating how many minutes of exercise it would take to burn off the whole packet.

Its new labelling system would mean that every time you chose a pizza on the menu at a restaurant, or picked up a share-size pack of crisps in the supermarket, you’d be faced with a numeric equivalent of how much exercise you’d have to undertake to burn of each calorific treat.

For example, a quarter of a large pizza (the equivalent of two slices) would take 43 minutes of running to burn off, while a sugary mocha coffee would take half an hour on the treadmill.

The icons would show a stick figure walking, running, swimming or biking next to the number of minutes required to cancel out calories consumed.

The society says, in a recent paper, that they want to help consumers in making more informed choices when purchasing food.

Shirley Cramer CBE, Chief Executive, RSPH, told the Evening Standard: “Although nutritional information provided on food and drink packaging has improved it is evident that it isn’t working as well as it could to support the public in making healthy choices. Activity equivalent calorie labelling provides a simple means of making the calories contained within food and drink more relatable to people’s everyday lives, while also gently reminding consumers of the need to maintain active lifestyles and a healthy weight.”

Given the responsibility of the food industry in tackling the obesity epidemic we believe activity equivalent calorie labelling could provide the nudge many people need to be more active and support their customers to make healthier choices.”

Rates of diabetes across the world have nearly doubled since 1980, according to a World Health Organization report released this week, while in the UK, two-thirds of adults are now overweight or obese.

The icons, which are just an idea for now, are part of a longer term project to shrink the gap between food and exercise and help people understand exactly how many calories they are consuming.

The Royal Society for Public Health is now currently lobbying the government and food-and-beverage industry to try the idea on food products.

If it does come into effect? Be prepared to put down the pizza and drink far fewer mochas.

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