Living a healthy lifestyle has become all the rage recently, from working out to eating right, millions of people around the world have fallen into this craze. Lately, a new idea has been introduced. Many people are starting to believe that exercise equivalents should also be a mandatory part of nutrition labels. For example, a chocolate bar that contains 229 calories could have the following images on its wrapper: a walker with 42 minutes next to it, a runner (22 minutes) and a biker (49 minutes).
“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,” says Shirley Cramer, CEO for Great Britain’s Society for Public Health.

The problem with being healthy nowadays is that people believe they can eat whatever they want and just work off the excess calories at the gym. While in some cases that may be true, that is a big factor in why people may have trouble losing weight, or even end up gaining weight. “The first step to being fit is eating right,” says Vanessa Soto, a Wayne Hills senior, “you have to nourish your body in order for it to function properly.”

“We won’t reduce obesity by focusing on diet or physical activity alone,” says Cramer, “people need to create a balanced relationship between the calories they consume and the calories they expend.”
A survey taken by the Royal Society for Public Health showed that 53 percent of the public said they would change their eating habits in a positive way if companies legally had to put exercise equivalents on their labels. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University also conducted a survey which showed that teenagers were significantly less likely to buy sodas and other sugary drinks such as Red Bull or Monster Energy.