What if you knew a cookie would take 20 minutes to run off?

Researchers are studying whether people might make better food choices if labels said how much exercise would be needed to burn off their calories. For example, a bag of chips might say it has 170 calories, alongside a logo indicating you’d need to run for 16 minutes. It sounds far-fetched, but shows the difficulty of curbing obesity rates. The theory is that “exercise calories” might present information in a way that’s easier to understand than calorie counts. Not everyone finds the idea compelling. One worry is that it would reinforce the idea that exercise is a punishment for eating.