Label Food, Not Kids: U.S. States Grapple with Obesity

With the new year comes new resolve to tighten belts, literally, by shedding unwanted pounds accumulated over the holiday (if not earlier). But what about childhood obesity?

A TV and print campaign introduced in August by Children's Healthcare of Atlanta is now being criticized for calling out overweight children to appeal to their adult caregivers, with the goal of shocking them into action and reversing Georgia's title as the American state with the second-hightest rate of childhood obesity. In one commercial, for example, a mother sighs when asked by her son why he's overweight.

Georgia isn't the only state grappling with the obesity epidemic. As America’s waistlines keep growing larger, many states now have laws in place that require restaurants to provide calorie information on its menus. That way, the thinking goes, consumers might stop themselves from chowing down on a 500-calorie double-chocolate brownie. Of course, a calorie count lising on a menu isn't going to deter diners from high-cal choices, but public health advocates argue that consumers have the right to know.

It’s been about a year since the law went into effect in California. "What I'm hearing is it's not having any effect at all on people's choices, which is shocking to me," said Emily Wortiska, a registered dietician there, according to The Bakersfield Californian. "Most people don't give it a second glance."

The Californian notes that there is the possibility of a federal version of the law, but the writers of that bill might want to check out some new research. 

Packaging Digest reports that health experts are asking for food and drinks to have “exercise labels” placed on them rather than calorie totals. The labels would tell consumers just how much time they would need to put in exercising in order to burn off the excess calories they would be consuming.

To discover this, Johns Hopkins researchers “posted three different signs outside corner shops to see which was best at deterring young people from drinking calorific fizzy drinks,” Packaging Digest reports. One pointed out that the drinks generally contain 250 calories while another wondered if the consumer knew that the drink fulfilled 10 percent of their daily caloric allowance. A third sign at a third shop pointed out that “a fizzy drink would take 50 minutes of running to counteract the soaring sugar and calorie content.”

The third store’s sales went down 50 percent while sales went down 40 percent at the store that posted the actual calorie numbers, researchers discovered, according to Packaging Digest.

"People generally underestimate the number of calories in the foods and beverages they consume," commented researcher Dr. Sara Bleich to the publication. "Providing easily understandable caloric information — particularly in the form of a physical activity equivalent, such as running — may reduce calorie intake from sugar-sweetened beverages and increase water consumption among adolescents.”

It's preferable to label foods than kids as fat, of course, but whether either tactic will be effective remains to be seen.