惠普广告:将卡路里含量转换为等价运动量有助于健康选择

将卡路里含量转换为等价运动量有助于健康选择

By mid-2012, coffee shops and burger joints across the country will be required to prominently display nutritional information about their food products. Many of the larger franchises are already doing this. But does knowing the number of calories in a caramel latte make you more likely to choose a fat-free coffee?

       到2012年中期，美国的咖啡店和汉堡店都得在显眼位置标明食物产品的营养信息。现在一些较大的店铺已经开始着手进行。但是知道一杯焦糖拿铁的卡路里含量会让你更倾向于选择脱脂咖啡吗？

Unfortunately, no—most studies have found that caloric signage has little or no impact on the food choices that customers make. But that may be because people don’t have a clear idea about what those calories mean, suggests Sara Bleich, a health policy expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

       遗憾的是，答案是不——大部分的研究表明卡路里的标记对顾客的食物选择影响甚微。约翰?霍普金斯大学布隆博格公共卫生学院的一位卫生政策专家Sara Bleich分析，这可能是由于人们不清楚卡路里含量表达的含义。

“When my husband eats junk food, he always says he’ll burn it off later,” Bleich says. “And I’m thinking, ‘No you won’t, honey.’ ”

        “当我丈夫吃垃圾食品时，他总是说一会儿他就会消耗掉这些能量。”Bleich说。“我总是想说，‘你不会的，亲爱的。’”

The 250 calories in a bottle of soda may not sound like much, but to work off those calories, a 15-year-old weighing 110 pounds would have to jog for 50 minutes, ride a bicycle for 73 minutes, or walk briskly for two hours. Adults would have to work even harder, to compensate for their slower metabolism. In a recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health, Bleich found that translating calories into a physical activity equivalent can help customers make healthier choices.Bleich’s team posted nutritional information on the beverage coolers of three Baltimore corner stores. In each store, the signs held one of three messages:

       一瓶苏打水含250卡路里的热量，貌似不是很多。但要想消耗掉这些热量，一名15岁重110磅的少年需要慢跑50分钟，骑自行车73分钟或散步两个小时。同样的热量成年人需要更多的运动才能消耗掉，因为他们的新陈代谢要慢一些。Bleich最近在美国《公共卫生》的期刊上发表了一篇文章，研究发现将卡路里转换成等价的运动量会让顾客做出较为健康的选择。Bleich的团队分别在三家巴尔的摩的街头小店进行了实验，他们在饮料冷藏处贴上了食物的营养信息。在这三家商店张贴的信息分别如下：

    “Did you know that a bottle of soda or fruit juice has about 250 calories?”

           您知道吗？一瓶苏打水或果汁包含250卡路里的热量。

    “Did you know that a bottle of soda or fruit juice has about 10% of your daily calories?”

          您知道吗？一瓶苏打水或果汁的热量相当于你每天所需的10%。

    “Did you know that working off a bottle of soda or fruit juice takes about 50 minutes of running?”

          您知道吗？要想消耗一瓶苏打水或果汁的热量需要跑步50分钟。

The researchers then watched to see whether the signs had any impact on the types of drinks bought by African American teenagers, who are at higher risk for obesity than white teenagers, and who also tend to drink more sugary beverages.

In the store whose signs provided the physical activity equivalents, a black teenager’s odds of buying soda or other sugary drinks was halved, as compared to before the signs were posted. The other two treatments—listing the raw calorie count or percent of daily intake—also appeared to decrease the consumption of sugary beverages, but the effects were not statistically significant.

      在贴有等价运动量信息的商店里，黑人青少年购买苏打水或其它含糖饮料，与张贴前相比，几率减半。其它的两家商店---分别列出了卡路里的值和每日能量的摄入比，含糖饮料的销量也减少了，但是从统计数字上看效果并不是非常明显。

The results are still somewhat preliminary, since the study only looked at one store for each type of sign. Future studies will determine whether the physical activity signage will have similar effects in other populations. Still, Bleich thinks that it may be time to start thinking about alternatives to plain old calorie counts.

        由于每种信息仅在一家店铺张贴，这只能算是初步的结果。 未来会进一步研究食物等价运动量的信息是否对其它人口具有相似的影响。 然而，Bleich认为，是时候考虑将原有的卡路里值的替代成其它信息了。“

There is a great window of opportunity right now,” she says, because the legislation that will require fast food chains to post calorie counts does not specify exactly how that information should be presented. Of course, it would be difficult for a Starbucks to put a statement like “It takes x hours of bicycling to work off this drink” next to every beverage on its menu, but Bleich says that they could add the signage elsewhere, such as next to its baked goods. Customers could then extrapolate that information to their other menu choices.“

        “现在有很多机遇。”她说道。因为立法只是规定快餐连锁店公布卡路里的含量，而没有规定采用何种方式公布信息。当然，要想让星巴克在菜单上的每种饮料旁都写上“这杯饮料的热量需要你骑x小时的自行车才能消耗掉”是不太现实的。但Bleich说他们可以在其它地方把这些信息标示出来，比如可以放到烘焙食品的旁边。顾客可以根据上面的信息来选择其他商品。

No matter how illustrative the presentation, it will take more than a calorie count to help customers make healthy decisions at fast food restaurants. “Posting nutritional information has the greatest effect on people that are interested in making behavioral changes—people who want to lose weight or who care about nutrition,” Bleich says.

       无论把卡路里含量标示的有多么直观，只使用卡路里含量来帮助顾客在快餐店做出健康的选择是远远不够的。“公布食物的营养信息对想改变行为的人--想减肥或注意营养的人影响最大。”Bleich说。