Health & Family Walking time stickers

Saw a great idea on the teev the other night;

As well as having all the guff on food packaging stating the amount of salt, sugar, preservatives, kilojoules and so forth, a proposal is in for stickers to be put on the packets to tell you how much walking time is required to burn off that particular item.

It was brilliant; much easier for folks to identify how bad the food item is for you via how many walking minutes required to burn it off...sort of a shock tactic.

A snickers bar was something like 25 mins, cans of coke were similar (or more?), and so on.

The problem will be - how fast is the walker walking?

I see folks out walking, and seriously; for a decent number of them; they may as well not bother.

The other problem will be; like with cigarette smokers; you can make the packs as shocking as you like, but they still choof away.

I don't know that the idea - as brilliant as it is - will work.

 

Hi!

There's a real simple solution that doesn't require stickers on packaging that people will only ignore - don't eat processed food. It's not rocket science.

 

Me neither. But it could only have a positive influence.

As someone who struggles with weight it would probably be helpful. Mostly for snack items. If I was in 7-11 hankering for some rubbish food, it would either deter me from buying, or incline me to the least worst option.

It could be useful on fast food as well, if prominently shown.

 

Ah, yes; but Mark; we now have more than 50% of our population which is classed as overweight to obese.

So, clearly that is not happening - or folks are not exercising anywhere near enough (and/or both).

 

Yeah, I know all that stuff Marc. What I'm saying is that a sticker is going to have zero effect.

With the voice of unreason, otherwise known as 'the fat shaming brigade' getting louder and louder, most people are almost certainly only going to get wider and wider.

 

You don't know that. The idea has enough legs to warrant a trial that thoroughly studies effect.

Diseases of wealth/fat (heart disease, diabetes, stroke etc) have such a huge social and economic impact that it's warranted to try to find ways of reducing it's impact.

 

It is rocket science. If it wasn't we'd all be thin and healthy.

 

It's not;

kilojoules in, energy expended to burn them up.

I saw a docco a few years ago about "The World's Fittest Man".

He used to consume something of the order of 4,500 calories (or kilojoules?) per day (adult male requires 2500 per day)....but his exercise regime was such that he burned 'em all off.

 

N

We make decisions based on needs and wants. When our wants are mistaken for needs we have a problem.

 

It is! Simply telling ******* they need to eat less and move more hasn't worked.

Try something else.

 

Yeah... Sneering at how bad overweight people are at exercising (as in when they are doing it) really doesn't achieve much, particularly when they are actually doing something active like walking.

It's like the pathetic men (and it is nearly always men) who yell out abuse at overweight women (yep, usually women) who are walking/jogging/cycling.

Through lifestyle, genetics or health some people are overweight. Encouraging people to live a healthy, active life shouldn't be about trying to score cheap points to make your own failures seem less bad.

 

There is no anything else to tell folks....blame it on our genes?

I know it hasn't worked to tell folks what they need to do.

You can tell folks what is the right thing to do until you are blue in the face, but in the end you can only lead horses to the water.

Dieting and exercise is very tough - and I mean that in all sincerity...other wise the Jenny Craigs of the world would be out of business...humans by instinct want to follow the path of least resistance - in all things.

Our lives have changed enormously in just my lifetime, Ed.

When I was a kid; there was pretty much no take-away, very little packaged food (I lived on Cornflakes), kids had cordial if they were lucky; usually water, Mum cooked dinner every night, we all spent most of our free time outside playing games, sport, or on the bike riding to friend's houses, etc.

A lot of homes had either one car, or no car...

We all watched tv, but the attention span for kids is short, so out the door we went when the teev got boring.

 

Noone is sneering Andrew.

Walking is terrific; but it needs to be at a pace to burn off kilojoules. A wander around the block with the dog probably won't cut it I'm afraid. Sorry; just stating a fact.

But; at least those folks are out walking. As long as you are aware of the difference and the results you might expect.

Yes, well; you are describing a minority of Neanderthals and are best ignored.

Ridiculous statement.

Most folks are about trying to help folks who have a weight problem; not trying to drag folks down to their level of sadness or whatever.

Folks like Michelle Bridges, The Commando, Shannon - all of Biggest Loser fame, Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons (once a ****** himself)...the list is endless - do you think they are failures, do you think they are about making others feel bad to make themselves feel less bad?

 

Sorry, re-reading that it made it sound like I was commenting on your comment - wasn't the intention.

I do Parkrun every weekend, either volunteering or running. And it's a rare time when someone doesn't shout out something offensive to one of the people towards the back.

Those actively encouraging aren't what I was talking about at all.

 

People are fat by choice. No one put a gun to their head and forced them to shovel excessive amounts of garbage masquerading as food into their mouths.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-29/australian-obesity-rates-climbing-fastest-in-the-world/5485724

"The results of the global study into obesity rates, published in the medical journal The Lancet, show almost a quarter of the country's children and 63 per cent of the adult population is overweight."

63% isn't 'some'. Two of every three people are fat. That's disgusting. Making excuses for people that sit on their behinds and hoover chips and lollies and coca cola around the clock is enabling.

When I see a ****** out exercising, I immediately think "Good work! Keep it up, buddy!"

 

Are they measuring that on BMI or bodyfat percentage?

 

No idea. I mean, all you gotta do is look around. *******! ******* everywhere!

 

Speaking of that; when we lived in the USA, the apartment building we lived in had a terrific gym....lots of hot girls in it too...I digress.

About the same time, I found out that a block of Cadbury's chocolate contained approx 500 calories per 100g.

I have been known to devour a considerable amount of the stuff in various forms.

http://www.caloriecount.com/calories-cadburys-dairy-milk-chocolate-i100087

I set myself a challenge to work off that amount of calories each day on the exercise bike over at the gym...took a solid 30 mins of cycling pretty frickin hard to do it.

 

Cardio really is a waste of time if your goal is to lose weight! I actually feel sorry (but also inspired) by overweight people that I see busting there *** on a stationary bike at the gym.
Sure your cardio vascular function will improve as well as your overall health and wellbeing but a 30 min walk is equivalent to a slice of white bread. Cardio is not a sustainable way to manage weight .plus its boring as hell
People eat calorie rich nutrient poor food like products, it needs to be the other way around, nutrient rich calorie deficient food.
Along with increasing your body’s ability to burn calories by raising your BMR. This can be done by eating smaller regular meals, drinking more water and increasing skeletal muscle mass.
Simples!