(CNN) - Imagine you're choosing between two different boxes of cookies at the grocery store. One has a label informing you that you could burn off the calories in a serving by jogging for 10 minutes, while the label on the other box says you would have to jog for 20 minutes. Would that help you decide which cookie to buy?
Although the idea of these types of food labels has not really picked up steam in the United States, the Royal Society for Public Health, an organization of health care professionals in the United Kingdom, is advocating these "activity equivalent" labels. They would tell consumers how many minutes they would have to engage in several types of exercise, such as walking and jogging, to expend the calories in specific food items.
"The aim is to prompt people to be more mindful of the energy they consume and how these calories relate to activities in their everyday lives, to encourage them to be more physically active," wrote Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health, in an opinion article published on Wednesday in The BMJ.
It is an intriguing idea, according to experts in the United States, but there isn't enough information about whether these labels do any good to recommend them, much less require them by law, they said. Some even worry the activity labels could have unintended effects.
"I think it's a good idea, but I'm a believer in evidence-based policy, so we need a fair bit more evidence before we would have a good justification for moving to a law" requiring food makers to include this label on products, said James F. Sallis, professor of family and preventive medicine at University of California-San Diego. (FullStory)
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