Recommended exercise to cancel out calories in drink company’s products

Coca-Cola in the UK has developed the Work It Out Calculator, which gives customers suggestions that will cancel out the calories in each of its drinks.

It can be hard for many people to strike the right balance between eating and exercise in order to maintain a healthy figure, but there have been innovations such as the Tanita Shokudo cafeteria in Tokyo which offers nutrition advice alongside its meals. Now, Coca-Cola in the UK has developed the Work It Out Calculator, which suggests activities that will cancel out the calories in each of its drinks. Users can select the product whose calories they want to neutralize – including fizzy beverages such as Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper and Schweppes Tonic to still drinks like Oasis and 5 Alive – and the calculator will give the number of calories in each serving along with a number of suitable workouts. For example, a 139 calorie can of Coke could be counteracted with a 17-minute basketball session or 45 minutes of ballroom dancing. The tool also suggests activities that can be carried out in the home, such as ironing, vacuuming and stair climbing. Once they have worked out a plan to burn off the calories, users can gain additional nutrition advice, learn more about recommended daily allowances and read about the importance of exercise. The tool helps consumers to know exactly what they need to do in order to keep healthy when they indulge in a soft drink and raises awareness of the number of calories in the brand’s products. Could other food and beverage manufacturers help consumers by providing this kind of information?