Sugary soft drinks undoubtedly play a significant role in obesity in the US and if we are not careful the same will be the case in India.
According to new research by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, teenagers that saw signs explaining the number of miles they would need to walk to burn off the calories in sugary drinks were more likely to leave the store with a lower calorie beverage, a healthier beverage or a smaller size beverage.
There is growing evidence suggesting that simply showing calorie counts on products and menus isn’t enough to break Americans from their bad eating habits.
The same can be said about India. Although most people probably do not know what a calorie is, they definitely know that if you have too many of them you gain weight. A better way to convey this information is needed and the amount one needs to walk is a good way to convey it.
Coca-cola and Pepsi are promoting health and movement in the US, a market where their sales are on the decline, but in India there is no such education. In India the market strategy to increase sales by catering to young children and adults through Bollywood and cricket stars.
A typical soft drink of Coke, Pepsi, Fanta, Limca, etc has 250 calories. Wouldn’t it be great if first – the number of calories and nutrition info were in a bigger font. Second – they should have the amount of kilometers you would have to walk to burn off these calories.
For a bottle that contained 250 calories and had 16 teaspoons of sugar, it would take 50 minutes of running to work off those calories or would take a bit over 8 kilometers to walk the calories off. Most people, including teens, would think twice before drinking something where they would have to walk that much!
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