Activity-based food labeling? Wow what a concept

Reading food nutritional labeling is something I advocate religiously on this blog. Few people realize just how much salt, fat and sugar is in most items they pick up in a typical supermarket. Those who are aware are increasingly shopping at non-traditional supermarkets and food vendors, but I fear they’re not reading labels either, simply assuming what they buy at such stores in healthier. Big mistake.

I recently came across a fascinating concept out of England regarding labels — putting icons on labels to show how much of a given activity, say running, you’d need to do to burn off the calories in a given food item you buy.

Can you imagine seeing how hard you’d have to exercise to burn off a frozen pizza? Or a slab of ribs? I doubt anyone would buy a lot of favorite foods if they knew that.

“Food and drink manufacturers should adopt ‘activity equivalent’ calorie labelling on their products which show how much activity is needed to burn off the calories in them, according to the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH),” reported FoodManufactureUK.com.

I haven’t seen anyone talking about this in the United States, but food labeling issues often surface in Europe before they ever reach our shores. I would love to see a discussion of this type of labeling begin here.

John