5/10/2012 - How Many Miles Do You Need to Walk to Burn Off that Soda?
Back Cove Trail mile markers track more than distance this Friday

PORTLAND, Maine - This Friday, signs at mile markers 1, 2, and 3 along the Back Cove Trail will help runners and walkers keep track of more than just the distance they have traveled. As a part of the city’s obesity prevention efforts, Back Cove trekkers will also be able to see the calorie equivalent of how much soda they have burned off while walking or running the trail. Walking three miles burns enough calories to equal the consumption of a 20 oz. bottle of soda.

The mile markers are a component of the city’s obesity prevention public information campaign, Pouring on the Pounds, and efforts to educate the public of the health risks associated with consuming sugar sweetened beverages. The signs were installed following this week’s announcement by Duke University researchers that by 2030 roughly 42 percent of all Americans will be obese. Sugar sweetened beverages are the leading source of added sugars in the diet of Americans with a 20 oz. soda equivalent to drinking sixteen packets of sugar, or 250 calories. These beverages account for forty percent of the overall added sugar consumed in the country – more than any other food.

“It is astonishing to think that our children are the first generation in recent history to have a life expectancy less than their parents,” stated Mayor Michael Brennan. “Obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death in the US and may soon overtake tobacco as the leading cause. We have a moral responsibility to educate and arm adults and children with the tools they need to live healthy and active lives. This campaign shines an important light on the impact added sugars like those found in soda, sports and energy drinks can have on your health.”

Pouring on the Pounds includes public service announcements (online), designed to inform the public of that a 20 oz. sugar sweetened beverages is equal to sixteen packets of sugar and the extra calories from drinking these beverages increase the risks of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Drinking one to two sugary drinks per day increases a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 26%. The announcements are featured on buses, local papers and television.

Maine is the most obese state in New England with one out of every three children in the state and fifty-eight percent of all adults in Cumberland County either overweight or obese. Two years ago, the city received $1.8 million to implement strategies to prevent obesity from a Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant. The grant is administered by Healthy Portland, a local Healthy Maine Partnership and program of the City of Portland’s Health and Human Services Department. Pouring on the Pounds is one of the public health strategies developed to encourage active living and healthy eating. Other initiatives include the installation of fitness trails at schools and the Back Cove, working with the Portland Farmers’ Market Association to accept SNAP benefits, increasing the number of community gardens within the city, working with local restaurants to add calorie information to their menus, developing a citywide plan to increase safety and access to streets and trails for pedestrians and cyclists, and this month’s installation of Portland Walkways, safe walking and biking routes to Portland elementary and middle schools.

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