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09 Oct 2008 07:59 PM

Big Apple Helping Fitness Fanatics Take a Bite Out of Healthier Living

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

If you travel around New York City via the subway you may have been pleasantly surprised to see expletive-free reading material posted in select cars this week. The new additions come courtesy of the city Health Department and while they may not make you as sick as the graffiti they help cover up, the posters still have some riders clutching their stomachs.

After reading that your burrito lunch (complete with sour cream and guacamole) contained more than half the calories you should eat in a day, you should be feeling ill.

The informative posters that now hang in about 1,000 New York City subway cars are part of a 3-month long ad campaign designed to build on the city's new regulation requiring fast food restaurants post calorie counts on their menus. The city says the posters are intended to promote healthy eating and the need to participate in regular exercise to burn off the 2,000 calories a day that most adults should limit themselves to.

So instead of burying your head in the Times or Daily News you can scan the new posters and see that the giant apple bran muffin you ate for breakfast contained 470 calories and you'll have to spend about 50 minutes on the treadmill (walking at about 3.3 miles per hour) to burn it off. Likewise, you can do the math in regards to workout times after learning that the chicken burrito you threw back at lunch contained a whopping 1,170 calories.

City officials say they are anxious to see what type of feedback the new posters generate. Health experts say they're betting people will eat fewer calories once they discover how long it will take them to burn off that chocolate donut or extra cookie.

The new posters are currently in 20 percent of city subway cars, but if the campaign is embraced by riders city leaders say they plan to add more in the future.

What do you think about the new posters?

Michele Cheplic writes about red-hot celebrities in POP CULTURE, fiery topics in PARENTS, sizzling recipes in FOOD, calorie burning exercises in FITNESS, and hot new kid-friendly crafts in FUN. Check out all of her articles here.

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Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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