Food packets should be labeled with special activity icons that carry details needed for exercise, a group of health experts in the United Kingdom suggested.
Specifically, the packaging should indicate the equivalent amount of calories needed to be burned off for physical fitness, as well as the time it would take to achieve it, researchers said.
The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) says current calorie count and existing traffic light systems are quite confusing because labels are loaded with too much information that can be difficult to understand.
What's more, there is little evidence that they can actually change behavior, the RSPH says.
Instead, if buyers were aware of the amount of activity needed to get rid of extra calories, they may begin to think twice before eating a sugary treat.
RSPH Chief Executive Shirley Cramer said the activity-equivalent calorie labeling aims to push people to be more mindful of the calories they consume and how these relate to their everyday activities.
Such information should be as simple and comprehensible as possible so consumers could easily decide what to buy during the average six seconds they spend looking at food, said Cramer. This will also encourage consumers to become more physically active, she said.
In the UK, more than two-thirds of residents are either obese or overweight, studies revealed.
In fact, a previous report published by Imperial College showed that almost four in every 10 people in Britain will become obese within the next 10 years. This increase is driven by over-consumption of processed food and lack of exercise, researchers said.
Cramer said labeling food packets with catchy activity equivalents will hopefully curb this growing number.
For instance, if you happen to be a 35-year-old male who ate a blueberry muffin which contains 265 calories, you would have to walk it off for 48 minutes. If you prefer running, it would take you 13 minutes.
One aspect of this proposal, however, is the fact that not everyone burns calories the same rate, so you would have to adjust the equivalent based on your situation.
Still, Cramer said a pictorial that shows what the equivalent activity would be if you ate crisps or a muffin conveys an immediate message.
"Everybody can understand that," said Cramer.
But not everyone agrees. Medical expert Dr. Yoni Freedhoff from Ottawa's Bariatric Medical Institute said exercise is not the ticket to the "weight loss express."
He said exercise doesn't even burn that many calories, and that a majority of the person's weight is determined by the way they eat.
"This message oversimplifies exercise and undersells its benefits to everything else beyond weight and calories," added Freedhoff.
The RSPH study is featured in the British Medical Journal.
